Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 751

In order to prevent the phenomenon of unbalanced economic development from spreading throughout the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youjian convened several cabinet ministers and related ministers to attend meetings in the palace to discuss and formulate relevant policies to promote the economic development of various prefectures and counties.

Judging from previous data, the leading industries and types of handicrafts in Daming are actually very single. The entire handicraft industry is mainly composed of five major categories: cotton textile industry, silk weaving industry, ceramics industry, papermaking and printing industry, and mining and metallurgy industry.

Among these categories, cotton spinning, silk weaving, paper printing and other industries had the largest number of employees, and these industries were mainly concentrated in the south of the Yangtze River, which led to a serious imbalance in the economic development between the north and the south of the Ming Dynasty.

Take cotton cloth as an example. As cotton cloth gradually became the main clothing material for common people in Ming Dynasty, it also greatly promoted the development of cotton cloth production.

Among them, Songjiang Mansion is the most famous, which is known as "covering the world with cotton clothes".

Of the more than two million acres of land in the entire Songjiang Prefecture, more than half of the cotton planting area is now located in Taicang Town, the largest cotton and cotton cloth trading center in Daming. As many as 10 taels, and as few as tens of thousands.

These merchants made a lot of profits by buying and selling cotton and cotton cloth, which is a typical case of middlemen earning the price difference.

Because although the output of cotton cloth in Daming is huge now, almost all of the cotton cloth that is sold throughout Daming and surrounding countries is produced by countless small workshops.

Due to the constraints of vision and capital, the number of cotton cloth workshops is huge, but the scale is very small. There are very few looms with more than a hundred looms, and most of the workshops are composed of more than ten or twenty looms. It is composed of looms and almost the same number of workers. They have no spare time to purchase cotton and sell cotton cloth by themselves, so they can only let powerful merchants make huge profits from it.

The Four Seas Commercial Bank has now set up three large workshops with [-] looms. Their raw materials and finished products are also purchased and sold by themselves. It is precisely because of the involvement of the Four Seas Commercial Bank that the price of cotton cloth has been maintained at a relatively stable level. Level, and the price has not been raised by unscrupulous merchants because of the surge in sales.

In the middle and late Wanli period, some prefectures and counties in Shandong and Henan provinces also started planting cotton one after another, and the cotton cloth industry in Beidi was also born and developed. , The cotton planting industry also shrank rapidly.

In order to break the monopoly position of Songjiang cotton cloth, starting from the 13th year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youjian decreed that cotton should be planted in areas that were not seriously affected by natural disasters in Gyeonggi, Henan, Shandong, and Shaanxi. Lay the foundation for the rise of the northern cotton textile industry.

The main reason why the cotton textile industry failed to develop on a large scale in the north is that the climate is dry, the cotton lint is intermittent, and cannot be formed into strands. Although it can be made into cloth, the quality is not good. Only by finding ways to solve the above constraints can the northern cloth There is a chance to rise and break Nanbu's monopoly.

It has to be said that the wisdom of the working people is indeed endless. Whenever there is an obstacle, there are capable people who will stand up to solve the problem and clear the obstacles on the way forward.

A weaver named Wang Chun in Suning County, North Zhili, created a method to improve the quality of cotton cloth after several studies.

His method is simple.

"Multiple cellars are built, several feet deep, on top of the house, the eaves are only two feet above the ground, and window lattices are used to let in sunlight. People live in it, and they weave with moisture."

The key problem restricting the production of Beibu was solved in this way.

The fineness of the horses produced in Suning County is almost similar to that of the middle-grade products in Songjiang. This kind of cotton cloth is enough for daily wear for the people in the Northland who have just solved their food and clothing problems.

After hearing the news from the local Jinyi Weiwei Office, the general manager of Sihai Cloth Industry rushed to Suning County immediately by order. After personally inspecting the cotton cloth production process and finished products, he immediately decided to open a cotton cloth workshop in Suning County with a monthly salary of [-] taels. Wang Chun was hired as the shopkeeper of Suning Workshop, who has full authority to manage the entire production process of the official. The workshop initially ordered [-] looms, and the sales of finished products will increase gradually after that.

In order to support the production of cotton cloth, Sihai Cloth Industry has also built a dyeing workshop and a kicking workshop in Suning, which are engaged in the follow-up processes such as dyeing and pressing of cotton cloth after production.

The establishment of these three workshops alone has solved the employment problem for nearly 700 people in Suning County and greatly promoted the development of the local economy.

In addition to the cotton textile industry, under Zhu Youjian's attention, the silk weaving industry has also gradually emerged in the north, among which Lu'an Mansion in Shanxi is the most important.

Lu silk originated very early and flourished in the early Ming Dynasty.

"Thousands of people board the plane and sing the loom." The products are sold in various provinces and even border ethnic areas. At the peak of Lu'an silk weaving industry, there were more than 9000 looms, but it gradually declined due to various reasons.

In order to revive Lu silk, Sihai Silk Industry increased its investment in Lu'an Prefecture, spent a lot of money to build workshops, subsidized farmers, expanded the area of ​​mulberry tree planting, and took advantage of the local skilled workers to accelerate the revival of Lu silk. and rise, so as to drive the local economic development and improve the income level of farmers.

As the most traditional handicraft industry in China, the ceramic industry has a history of thousands of years.In addition to Jingdezhen, which is well-known both at home and abroad, the porcelain industry in Chuzhou in Zhejiang Province, Dehua in Fujian Province, Yuzhou in Henan Province, Quyang in North Zhili Province, and Yixing in South Zhili Province is also very developed, producing distinctive porcelains.

There are many kinds of porcelain, and there are more in Ming Dynasty than in previous dynasties.

In addition to common supplies such as bowls, plates, saucers, bells, pots, cups, boxes, cups, etc., there are also wine seas, stoves, bottles, half gourd bottles, jars, altars, flower vats, slag buckets, vinegar injections, Candlesticks, flower statues, pen holders, pen holders, pier, fan boxes, etc.

In order to further promote the development of the ceramic industry, Zhu Youjian decreed to abolish the system of producing imperial ceramics by official kilns in various places, to make the ceramic industry fully market-oriented, and to allow official kilns to intervene in market competition with their strong technical strength, and no longer A lot of people, money and material resources are spent to produce imperial ceramics, and the imperial use will also be purchased from the market. The colors and shapes of enamel that were previously prohibited for folk use are all abolished.

Jingdezhen has become the biggest beneficiary of the restructuring of official kilns, and its sales of various ceramic products have quickly become the leader in export products within just two years after the restructuring.

Jingdezhen's conditions are unique.

There are abundant high-quality kaolin, the raw material for porcelain making, tens of thousands of porcelain craftsmen and workshops, superb porcelain making technology, and well-equipped official kilns. Although there are many private kilns, technically, They are incomparable with official kilns.

Jingdezhen folk kilns previously topped the list of export sales, but the complete opening of official kilns has hit the export of folk kilns. It is also increasing every year, and more producers will benefit a lot.

As for the originally smaller mining and metallurgy industry, benefiting from the development of the commodity currency economy, the social demand for handicraft raw materials, fuel raw materials, copper, and silver currency raw materials is increasing day by day. The replenishment of the labor force has thus also been markedly developed.

This is also the pillar industry for the future economic development of Beidi in Zhu Youjian's plan.

　Thanks to the cake robber for the reward.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)