Seeing this, Guo Kang brought up the prepared topic.
"If you really want to do something, I have an errand here. Will you take it?" he asked.
"Ah? What's the errand?" Guo Ponu immediately became curious and asked.
Guo Kang then told her again about the situation of the textile sect that had been discussed in the church before, and told her that he was preparing to recruit people.
“We are actually not short of participants now, but we are short of people who can preside over management and deal with other parties at the same time.” He said: “Although churches are organizing, this industry is very large and it is impossible to always be led by Church management. When the time comes, there will definitely be a need for an institution that can operate independently."
"How many people do you need to manage?" Guo Ponu said in surprise.
"It is definitely indispensable." Guo Kang said truthfully: "Such a huge production organization requires very complete internal management. You know, after it is operational, it will definitely have to deal with a lot of different industries - this After all, it is the beginning of industry, and by then you will know how complicated its system is."
"Moreover, in the future, this will definitely be a cross-regional organization, which will need to coordinate people from different regions for production. We have to develop a series of standards. Whether it is the supporting machines or the cloth produced, there must be universal specifications. After this system is completed, the traditional Legion Farm will be a small organization compared with it. By then, various industries in the farm may have to be adjusted to support it."
"Is it that exaggerated?" Guo Ponu felt a little guilty.
"It will definitely not be like this all at once." Guo Kang said: "However, I am very confident about its prospects."
"I actually know how to dance with a gun and a stick." Guo Ponu had to admit: "If you ask me to do this, I don't know if I can do it. I don't want to hold them back and embarrass our family... "
"It's also useful to dance with guns and sticks. And as I said, on the one hand, this job requires contact with a large number of women and in-depth communication with them. On the other hand, it also requires dealing with a lot of outsiders." Guo Kang explained: "No matter what Whether it is foreign businessmen, domestic craftsmen, farmers, or officials, they must all have regular contact."
"My mother said before that you always like to run around. You have never had stage fright when you come into contact with people from all walks of life, so she can take you out with confidence. I think that someone like you has a certain status and will not be in front of strangers. If you have stage fright, it’s best to be responsible for this kind of thing.”
"I was planning to find Theodora at first, but she was too busy." He shook his head: "This kind of work, especially in the early days, must have a lot of chores. If she takes care of it, she probably won't be able to take care of other things... …”
"Oh, it's okay. She doesn't have time, so I can help." Guo Ponu nodded quickly.
"I didn't mean to trouble you at the beginning." Guo Kang continued to explain: "If it really doesn't work, I can do it myself. But people in the church said that the rules of different nuns are different. I don't know if they are willing to let me go. Resident Guidance.”
"And in the early days of our work, we must often go to various religious orders to collect their feedback and make improvements in time. It's not that I don't want to deal with the nuns, but hanging around them every day, I can't take care of other things. Already..."
"Don't worry." Guo Ponu immediately assured: "What's good about nuns! Sister will take care of them for you."
Guo Kang didn't expect her attitude to change so quickly. He was stunned for a moment and said, "That's good. Then I'll tell Master Wang later and the two nuns will take over the work. You can follow them around." , let’s understand the situation. If there is something that is not convenient for them to say, don’t be polite - if there is something, it is not easy for people to mention it publicly, but if you say it, it will be fine. "
"Okay." Guo Ponu responded directly: "But how long can I do this job?"
"If you succeed, you can do it for hundreds of years." Guo Kang said with a smile.
"Ah?" Guo Ponu was very surprised: "You are quite confident in it."
"Of course." Guo Kang said: "This is not only for you, but also for many women in Rome. So far, it is the best I can find. This is a job that can be combined with joining the army, farming, working, etc. Just like being an official, treat it as a 'professional' job."
"That's it..." Guo Ponu didn't understand.
"Don't worry." Guo Kang comforted.
He was quite confident about this matter. Because this work is not only highly efficient and highly profitable, but also very tenacious. Therefore, the continuous use time will not be short, and there will be no problem until it is fully industrialized.
Moreover, the Purple Horde Khanate can actually consider obtaining cotton from overseas. Future external expansion and domestic women's participation in production can complement each other and can completely promote each other.
Historically, the Qing Dynasty relied heavily on imported cotton. You can see this through simple data comparison.
Since the local area is not suitable for growing cotton, Britain basically relies on imported cotton raw materials. By 1801, it had reached 56 million pounds per year. However, most of them are from the United States. Cotton from another large-producing area, India, was mainly exported to the Qing Dynasty.
From the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, Guangdong Customs imported an average of about 27 million kilograms (about 36 million pounds) of cotton from India every year. By 1831-1833, the total amount of Indian cotton imported each year rose to 43 million catties (more than 57 million pounds). For a time, the volume of cotton trade from India to Guangdong even exceeded the volume of cotton trade from Britain and the United States. It's just that cotton cultivation in the United States... is probably racially endowed. That’s why it finally overtook India.
After the First Opium War, as customs controls were forced to relax, some machine-made cotton yarn was sold to China, providing a cheap substitute and driving down the cost of cotton cloth. Some female workers in the Jiangnan area who were engaged in spinning also began to turn to weaving, which led to further development of the industry and a blow to imported cotton.
In the 10 years from 1845 to 1855, Britain's cotton yarn exports to China increased from 2.6 million pounds to 2.9 million pounds, an increase of less than 10%, while the British cotton imports dropped from 3.1 million pieces to 2 million pieces, a decrease of 30%.
Due to improved technology and sufficient raw materials, the work of Jiangnan women has become more professional. By 1860, the average time that weaver women worked on weaving had increased to 265 days per year - also compared to later generations, during the commune and Great Leap Forward periods, rural women participated in farm labor and worked for about 250 days a year.
From this time, we can see the degree of development of "professionalism".
After the Taiping Rebellion, the textile industry suffered a blow due to repeated massacres in the Jiangnan region. But until the 1880s and 1890s, it still had a strong vitality. At this time, high-end fabrics were still exported to the UK, and folk textiles were still in progress.
At the end of the 19th century, the average working time of rural weavers in Changshu was still 168 days per year; at the beginning of the 20th century, the average working time of rural weavers in Jiangnan reached 180 days per year; in the relatively prosperous suburbs of Shanghai, the average working time could still reach 200 days per year.
Therefore, in the ancient environment, there was actually no need to consider whether the upper limit would be reached. It's still early...
(End of chapter)
