Chapter 7 The Young Mansion
At this moment, He Xi was inspecting the Nanjing Shaofu with Huang Zicheng.
He Xi was very busy in Nanjing. Huang Zicheng was not idle either. Huang Zicheng was busy establishing the Shaofu system.
Renovate all workshops in Nanjing.
Huang Zicheng had always wanted He Xi to give some advice. But the problem is, He Xi is too busy. Now many things are coming to an end. He Xi will return to Liaodong. It is also time for some government affairs to be handed over.
Only then did He Xi have a little free time.
Only then did he and Huang Zicheng have time to visit the Shaofu.
Huang Zicheng said: "The students have initially clarified the Shaofu system. The Shaofu is directly subordinate to the inner court. It integrates all the workshops under the 24th Supervisor with the workshops of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Household. It has jurisdiction over the Taiping Iron Works. This doesn't take much time. As mentioned, Jiangnan Weaving, Longjiang Shipyard, Construction Department, Jingdezhen Official Kiln, and Miscellaneous Department."
"Weaving in the south of the Yangtze River has weaving offices in Suzhou and Songjiang. Suzhou specializes in silk and Songjiang specializes in cotton. There are already hundreds of looms."
He Xi said: "What kind of loom did you use?"
Huang Zicheng said: "It is a loom from Liaodong. It has just been built. It can produce 500 pieces of silk and 1000 pieces of cotton cloth every day. In addition to supplying the needs of the court, it is sold in Suzhou every day, and more than 10,000 taels of silver can be obtained every month."
He Xi secretly thought, it seems that Liaodong's technology needs to be updated. Because he knew very well that the development of the textile industry in Jiangnan was too advantageous. From the origin of raw materials to the consumer market, and even technical advantages, etc.
For Liaodong's textile industry to be able to compete with Jiangnan's textile industry, technological advantages are very necessary.
Competition is everywhere.
But He Xi paid more attention to one question and said, "Wan Liang?"
This number is wrong.
Huang Zicheng was silent for a moment and said, "Jiangnan? That's it."
He Xi knows the inside story of the textile industry very well. The profit is also very clear, the price of silk is comparable, and the price of cotton is much higher. Profits are also much higher. In case the number is wrong.
But Huang Zicheng only needs a little.
He Xi understood what was going on.
The local snakes need to be dealt with.
Of course, Huang Zicheng may have exposed this matter. Zhu Yuanzhang will definitely carry out a purge of interested parties. But the question is, does killing solve the problem? Huang Zicheng in history may have been a Confucian official with high ambitions but low abilities. But now Huang Zicheng is closer to Xunli.
What is the difference between Confucian officials and Xunli officials? The former talks about benevolence and righteousness, and many other high-sounding things. But don't do anything. The best thing is to watch others do things and find fault with them.
Xunli is a person who really does things, and when doing things, he may make a lot of compromises. The most important thing is getting things done.
Huang Zicheng actually understands some of He Xi's thoughts very well.
The Ming Dynasty, no, China has actually had a large number of workshops since ancient times, and their organizational capabilities are not low. Even the internal division of labor is quite complete, needless to say. Let’s just talk about Qin Dynasty Workshop. With the sophistication of their weapons, it's hard to imagine that their management methods are very backward.
but why? These fine workshops don’t go any further.
The reason is simple, that is, these workshops are not profitable and are more of a part of the central government. There is only consumption, no profit.
Similarly, the original workshops of the Ming Dynasty were not as good as the factories built by Howe in terms of organization and division of labor. But the problem is quite possible. In this era, it is also world-class except for He Xi's series of factories.
It’s just that they all have one thing in common: they supply the imperial court, they supply the palace, and they do not directly supply the market.
For the court, there is only consumption.
Especially for Jiangnan Weaving, many people seem to be influenced by the TV series. It seems that Jiangnan Weaving is doing business overseas. Actually no, Jiangnan Weaving was responsible for collecting silk from local areas and supplying it to the palace. There are weaving workshops in Jiangnan, but a lot of silk is distributed directly to the private sector.
As for Huang Zicheng's work, improving the working environment, adjusting the production process, and introducing machinery are all very important. But more importantly, the direct supply of goods to the outside world has changed from a court supply agency to a factory.
And here comes the problem.
The imperial court actually has no control over the market and no pricing power. Moreover, the Jiangnan weaving output created by Huang Zicheng is not enough to occupy an absolute advantage.
Moreover, everyone wants a piece of the public goods. He Xi has a strong foundation and no one dares to be nagging around He Xi. But Huang Zicheng is not He Xi. When he encounters many things, he can only compromise and choose the big one over the small. Not even those benefits. There are many things that Huang Zicheng cannot do so easily.
He Xi said: "Are other workshops like this?"
Huang Zicheng said: "Yes, the ex-factory price is the same price. The market price is the same price. But fortunately, large-scale production reduces costs, and the court still makes money. And His Highness the Prince agreed. The profits of the Young Mansion do not need to be turned over. This year Just started, about 100,000 taels.”
"It's not as good as Liaodong now, but as time goes by, it will definitely be stronger than Liaodong."
He Xi said: "It can be seen. Jiangnan's advantage is too great."
Huang Zicheng said: "Yes, there are still some things, I hope the teacher can help. There are a lot of machinery to be sold from Liaodong. I hope the teacher can expedite it."
He Xi said: "Easy to say."
Today, Shenyang Machinery Factory can be said to have the only machinery manufacturing capabilities in the entire Ming Dynasty. Huang Zicheng wanted to expand, so he had no choice but to buy it from Shenyang Machinery Factory, and the machine factory mostly supplied internal supplies from Liaodong. Asking He Xi to say hello is the most convenient way.
Huang Zicheng continued: "The official kiln is in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi. I went there and found that the official kiln and the private kiln are actually a group of craftsmen. The craftsmen only work in the official kiln for ten days every month. In fact, it is best for the teacher to abolish the craftsman status. Now I have mainly employed people in the entire Shaofu system. However, there is no way for you to see these places."
"The Construction Department actually doesn't have any entity, it's just a group of craftsmen who specialize in construction."
"Longjiang Shipyard and Miscellaneous Plant. They are in Nanjing. Teacher, would you like to go and have a look."
He Xi said: "Okay, I have time today. Let's go take a look."
——
Longjiang Shipyard was the largest shipyard in the Ming Dynasty, and it still is today.
The Lushun Shipyard and Yingkou Shipyard built by He Xi in Liaodong cannot be compared with this place at all.
After all, if the place that Zhu Yuanzhang has been running for more than 30 years can be easily compared. It seems that Zhu Yuanzhang's more than thirty years of management are too useless. Of course, with the explosion of sailing. If Longjiang Shipyard remains on its laurels. He will definitely be thrown off.
It’s just that Huang Zicheng came and brought the most advanced technology in Liaodong.
The situation at Longjiang Shipyard is quite different.
After He Xi arrived at Longjiang Shipyard, the first thing he saw was the most important property of Longjiang Shipyard, which was the dock.
The dock is a big pit.
Once facing the water, you can build the boat in the dock. After the boat is built, you can directly release the water and let the boat enter the river from the dock.
When building a boat by a river, it is easy to be washed away by the current. This was the original reason for building docks, but as ships got bigger and bigger, it became difficult to find such a large place to build ships. Only shipyards can be built.
Lushun Shipyard only builds fishing boats and does not need a dock. Just build it directly on the coast. Once it is built, dozens of people will lift it into the water. But big ships are different. It is built directly on the shore and cannot be launched into the water at all.
The construction of docks is very time-consuming.
Perhaps many people think that the shipyard is just a big hole dug.
But in civil engineering, without construction machinery, people need to dig out things with shovels. Particularly time consuming. In the Longjiang Shipyard, there are dozens of large shipyards that can build dozens of large ships at the same time. This is not something that Yingkou and Lushun can catch up with in a short time.
It can be said to be spectacular.
He Xi said: "Yes, it seems business is booming."
Huang Zicheng said: "It is mainly a copper ship transporting from Nanyang. The imperial court wants it."
Nanyang copper ships are ships that transport copper ore from Nanyang. It is also among the four towns in Nanyang, Sulu Town. That is to say, the Cebu copper mine has begun to mine in later generations. It has become another pillar of Ming Dynasty's finance. After all, these coppers are used to make money.
In recent years, the number of coins minted has increased from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands to millions of coins.
Become one of the important revenue sources in the finance.
