What is good at the top will be bad at the bottom.
In any case, as the emperor, Zhu Youxiao commended some cultural works and literati of this era, which indeed inspired many literati to continue to actively create in the direction Zhu Youxiao hoped.
Encouraged by the emperor in the Qianqing Palace, Feng Menglong and Ling Shuchu left the capital and prepared to write the "Three Words and Two Pai" that had already been drafted.
Yang Tingjun, with the emperor's encouragement, began to plan to standardize the pinyin of Chinese characters based on the Ming Dynasty Mandarin.
Ruan Dacheng, who served as an official in Chongwen Temple, also decided to give full play to his expertise in dramatization and devote himself to writing scripts. He did not just rely on other ways to obtain official positions as in history.
Zhang Dai also had the idea of composing "Tao'an Dream Memories" in advance.
Song Yingxing also began to write a book called "Tiangong Kaiwu" based on his many years of experience in various miscellaneous studies.
Zhu Youxiao only spent a few silver coins and a dozen casual official positions, and the cultural undertakings of Ming Dynasty began to show signs of explosion.
The cultural changes in Tianqi Dynasty may not be that obvious yet.
But the economic changes have been very obvious.
With the end of the Jiangnan riots and the failure of the Jiangnan gentry's plot to prevent Xu's Cotton Spin Factory from becoming a big government-owned textile industry, Xu's Cotton Spinning Factory was not only saved, but was also successfully renamed the Ming Dynasty Cotton Spinning Bureau.
In addition, Zhu Youxiao also decreed the establishment of the Songjiang Weaving Bureau. The land of the Weaving Bureau was confiscated by some gentry who joined the government.
As a result, the official textile industry of the Ming Dynasty officially began in Songjiang Prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River.
Jiangnan has a prosperous population, and there are a large number of weavers and spinners who are ready for work in Yingtian, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Songjiang, Huzhou, Wuxi and other prefecture towns.
Therefore, the Daming Cotton Yarn Bureau and Weaving Bureau also recruited a large number of weavers and spinners after expanding their scale, and successfully expanded their survival scale.
Next, the Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau began to take the initiative to lower the price of cotton and silk in order to realize the purpose of Ming Dynasty's textile industry to occupy more foreign markets and expand domestic demand.
After all, the cotton yarn bureau of the Ming Dynasty now has a spinning machine with twenty spindles that can work at the same time, and the weaving efficiency and quality of the loom have been greatly improved due to the implementation of flying shuttle technology.
Therefore, the Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau have already had the foundation to reduce the price of cotton cloth and silk.
However, the cotton yarn bureau and the weaving bureau's reduction of cotton and silk prices will undoubtedly lead to the bankruptcy of many families who make a living by producing homespun cloth.
Zhu Youxiao had already had a plan to deal with this. On the one hand, he asked the Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau to improve the wages of spinners and weavers to attract these bankrupt people to work in the weaving factories. On the other hand, he also asked the government to encourage and Help the bankrupt people in these families to work in cotton yarn bureaus and weaving bureaus or engage in other jobs.
However, the most challenging thing here is not the bankruptcy of many weaver families, but the problem that most of the spinners and weavers in weaver families are women. If these women go out of the family and go to factories, they will still be subject to secular influences. and etiquette constraints.
Fortunately, the etiquette and laws of the Ming Dynasty are not as strict as before. In Jiangnan, etiquette and music have collapsed. It is a common phenomenon for merchants to wear silk and women to go out. In history, Liu Rushi traveled around as a woman, so in this regard, The binding force is not that strong. Moreover, Zhu Youxiao also took this into consideration and took the initiative to ask the cotton yarn bureau and the weaving bureau to set up men's and women's factories separated by gender. Therefore, in many countries, women are allowed to dress up as men. After entering factories and bringing more income to their families, many families still cannot resist such economic benefits and have to abandon stereotypes and allow their daughters to enter factories where only female workers are available.
The social foundation of traditional Neo-Confucianism is being destroyed bit by bit.
In any case, it was impossible to prevent the decline in cotton and silk prices caused by the emergence of advanced spinning and weaving technologies.
Either we have to wait hundreds of years for foreign barbarians to use "foreign cloth" to reduce the price of textile products, or we can only have the government-run textile industry controlled by the imperial court to reduce the price of textile products.
The latter is undoubtedly worse than the former, after all, the latter will have to take care of the interests of the bankrupt for the sake of its own ruling interests.
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao did not regret doing this.
Although many people are still dissatisfied with this.
The most gratifying change brought about by the Cotton Yarn Bureau and Weaving Bureau's lowering of cotton and silk prices was that a large number of foreign businessmen began to come to Ming Dynasty to snap up textiles.
These foreign businessmen no longer buy cotton from Korea, Japan, Ryukyu, and Nanyang Manila, but only buy textiles from the Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau.
The profits of the Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau naturally increased sharply as a result.
Silver from America and Australia flowed into the Ming Dynasty in larger quantities than before.
In addition, as the prices of cotton and silk dropped in the Ming Dynasty, especially the price of cotton, more and more ordinary people wore cotton-padded clothes in this cold winter, and many people who could only wear patched clothes began to have complete clothes. clothing.
However, when Zhu Youxiao lowered the prices of cotton and silk, he asked the government-run Cotton Yarn Bureau and Weaving Bureau to raise the prices of domestic raw silk and cotton.
Because Zhu Youxiao wanted to increase the income of the common people who had land in this way. After all, the production of silk and cotton required mulberry fields and cotton fields, and the current taxation in the Ming Dynasty mainly focused on collecting land taxes.
At the same time, Zhu Youxiao also used this method to increase the income of the common people in the country to make up for the losses of some homespun cloth producers.
"Let the prices of cotton and silk fall, and the prices of raw silk and cotton rise, so that the income of the people of the Ming Dynasty will rise, but the prices will fall. This will make the people live happier, and this will be considered a prosperous dynasty. However, the fall in the price of cotton and silk alone will not If it’s not enough, the price of grain and salt cannot be too high, so that people can afford it, especially grain.”
At this time, Zhu Youxiao mentioned the matter to Fang Congzhe in the political hall.
"Your Majesty, in my opinion, the food should not be too cheap, otherwise it will hurt the farmers."
Fang Congzhe replied.
The harm to farmers that Fang Congzhe said mainly affects the interests of landlords. After all, ordinary farmers and tenant farmers do not have enough food to eat themselves, so their incomes will be affected because food prices are too low.
Zhu Youxiao did not reveal it, he just smiled and said: "It can't be too low, but it can't be too high either. You made a decree and Songjiang Prefecture was officially opened as a sea port in the Ming Dynasty. It will be the second area opened to the sea after Yue Port." , allowing domestic and foreign merchant ships to trade here, the Ministry of Household Affairs formulated a settlement system, a routing system, and a tariff system for foreign merchants in Songjiang Prefecture. The West Factory set up a Songjiang customs collection department in the area, requiring them to pay in silver coins. The Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau must take the lead in dealing with transactions and tax payments. The Baoquan Bureau has set up a Baoquan branch in Songjiang Prefecture. The Yingyang coins of foreign merchant ships must be exchanged here for our Ming Dynasty silver coins before transactions and tariffs can be paid. ! Otherwise, the department will order them to be driven away! At that time, it will be announced that all imported grains will be temporarily exempted from tariffs to suppress the still rising domestic grain prices. After the grain prices fall, the taxes on grain entry will be levied or even increased. In addition, grain imports will be taxed. The industry bureau continues to use the treasury surplus to hoard grain in places where grain prices are too low, and to put grain in places where grain prices are too high."
"I obey the decree!"
Fang Congzhe replied.
So, next, the Ming Dynasty took advantage of the large number of foreign merchant ships gathering in the Songjiang area, and officially opened a port for trade in Songjiang Prefecture in the official name. It also took this opportunity to forcibly implement the policy of unified currency and start the system of tariff collection.
The foreign merchant ships were naturally dissatisfied with this.
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