Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2409 Difficulties
Li Yao'er has come into contact with all kinds of people from all walks of life in the past few years, the art of reading people is no longer Wuxia Ameng.Seeing that there was a spark in the young man's eyes for a moment, it was obvious that he wanted to cling to him.Can't help secretly laughing: The heart of fame and wealth is indeed everyone's weakness!Thinking that I can rejuvenate a country with a single word of my will, and destroy a country with a single word, and manipulating the fate of ordinary people is like a plaything, and I don't feel complacent.

Thinking of this, a slight smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.Said: "I came here to promote fine varieties and improve the silk industry..." Then, he introduced his specific tasks in detail, "Choosing Fengshenghe as a partner is naturally because of your business in this area. I have been in the silk industry for many years and I am familiar with the local conditions, so I would like to trouble you to talk about the local silkworm, mulberry, silk, and weaving.”

In fact, Li Yao'er has already learned more or less about this situation, including the materials provided by Chen Xuan, and the information she obtained from her own visits to Fengshenghe's craftsmen and accountants.

However, one of the important experiences she has learned from promotion over the years is that she must collect as much information as possible when doing field research, because everyone’s story is often different, some are deliberate lies, and some are unconscious embellishments.Moreover, these information are often converged due to some kind of wonderful "group psychology", which brings completely wrong conclusions to the collectors.

Since the young man in front of him is Fengshenghe's young shopkeeper and has many years of practical experience, the information he provides has the overall situation, and he can grasp the details well, which is very valuable.

To introduce the local situation, Chen Lin naturally knew everything.Said: "There are many local silkworm farmers..."

Before the Ming Dynasty, Xiangshan County was still a silted sandbar at the mouth of the Pearl River. It was only in the Ming Dynasty that it was connected to the mainland, so there were many sand fields, and because of the low-lying terrain, there were also many fishponds.Here is adjacent to Shunde, the oldest silk producing area in Guangdong. Affected by it, farmers often plant mulberry and raise silkworms.But the scale is not large.

After the opening and closing of Longqing, affected by the sharp increase in the export of raw silk and satin, the number of local sericulture households increased significantly, and the cultivation of mulberry and sericulture gradually became popular, but the output was still not as good as that of traditional sericulture areas such as Shunde and Foshan.

"Apart from Xiangshan, Shunde, and Foshan, are there any large-scale sericulture industries in Guangzhou?" Li Yaoer asked.

"Dongguan also has them. Speaking of which, they are actually larger than the local area."

"I think the conditions here are not bad, and we should be able to raise more silkworms."

"The words are good, but our sales here are limited. If you raise too much, there will be no way out for raw silk."

"Oh?" Li Yaoer became interested.These are situations that you don't get when chatting with other people.She went on to ask:
"I remember that Guangzhou exported a lot of raw silk and satin. They were shipped out in thousands of shipments. Why can't they be sold?"

Chen Lin said that the local silkworm eggs were not good, and the quality of the raw silk produced was not good, and they could not be sold at a good price whether it was sold domestically or abroad.

"Although there are many machine operators in Guangzhou and Foshan, some types of silk must be woven with lake silk—the local silk is not strong enough."

"How many machine household weaving workshops are there in Foshan, Guangzhou? How about your local area?"

"This, the villain has no way of knowing. There are about one or two thousand households. There are about dozens of local machine households, and there are only Fengsheng and one weaving workshop-in fact, there are not many weaving workshops in Guangzhou and Foshan. Most of them are machine owners."

This is roughly the same as the information Li Yaoer got in Guangzhou.According to the materials given to her by the Guangzhou Municipal Government, there are five major trades inside and outside Guangzhou, namely "Boa Robe Shop", "Eighteen Trades", "Eleven Trades", "Jincai Trade" and "Guangsha Trade", and there are more than a dozen small trades. It involves all processes from silk reeling, ramming, weaving, refining and dyeing, weaving, etc. There are more than 500 households with one machine or several machines.

If counties such as Foshan, Dongguan, Shunde, and Xiangshan are included, there will be no less than [-] households in the entire Guangzhou Prefecture.

In terms of production scale and output alone, the silk weaving industry in Guangzhou Prefecture is considered to be among the best in the entire Ming Dynasty, but the quality of raw silk restricts the further expansion of production scale.

"So you also need Kesi here?"

"As long as we make patterned silk and satin, we must use lake silk. If it is exquisite, it must be thin silk." Chen Lin said, "My father also thought about using local silk instead, and thought of a lot of ideas with the weaver, but it must be jacquard. Sometimes the silk scriptures are easily broken and cannot be woven, or the pattern is rough and ugly... In short, it is unsuccessful." He was quite helpless, "I have heard that the lake silk is tough because it is baked with fire when it is harvested and reeled. Dried, not air-dried. But I tested it myself, and although it is better, it is still not as good as Husi—I think so, this is a secret method, how can it be easily learned by others?"

Li Yao'er doesn't think so: people in this time and space are superstitious about secret recipes and techniques.In fact, it is not uncommon to tell the secret of Husi's toughness. The fire is only one reason, and the decisive factor is actually the silkworm eggs.

As for why only Huzhou has such silkworm eggs, it is simply because Huzhou, as the main production area of ​​sericulture, has a natural scale effect.The agglomeration of industries has promoted the refinement of the division of labor and the improvement of technology.When Li Yaoer was in Hangzhou, he visited almost all sericulture and silk-producing counties in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In terms of scale, technology, and related industrial and commercial organizations, the two prefectures of Suzhou and Hangzhou in the 17th century ranked first in the country.

"Haven't you ever thought about introducing silkworm eggs from Huzhou?" Li Yaoer asked.

"Why didn't I think about it," Chen Lin sighed, "How hard it is to change silkworm farmers to silkworm seeds!"

He said that his father once bought silkworm eggs from Huzhou for trial breeding by silkworm farmers, but no one was willing.Later, I had to hire female workers to raise them. I don’t know whether it was water and soil problems or other reasons. A large number of silkworms raised died of illness. Not only did they lose a lot of money, but they were also made fun of by the people in the clan.

"From then on, my late father was discouraged, so he didn't mention the matter of improving silkworm eggs."

Li Yaoer felt the same way.When she promoted silkworm eggs in Hangzhou, she also spent countless efforts.There were also many repetitions during the period. To be honest, it was a completely loss-making business, and it was completely impossible to rely solely on individuals or small groups.Fei Dasheng’s improvement of silkworm eggs in Wujiang not only received the support of the local government at that time, but also provided a lot of assistance from the silk industry capitalists in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.Even so, her improvement of sericulture was stumbling.What's more, Chen Lin's father is such a small workshop.

"The improvement of silkworm eggs does not happen overnight. Even in Suzhou and Hangzhou, it is not easy to do." Li Yaoer said, "I saw the machines in the factory, and it seems that you are both making silk and weaving silk here."

Chen Lin said that after Fengshenghe purchased raw silk from silkworm farmers, it had to go through a series of processes such as silk adjustment, wefting, warping, and pasting, before it could be woven on a loom to weave various silks and satins. After weaving, it had to be smelted and dyed.However, most of these front and rear processes are outsourced to specialized craftsmen.The weaving workshop itself mainly does the weaving process that requires relatively large equipment.

The traditional silk textile industry rarely has large-scale production.Even in the Qing Dynasty when industry and commerce were more developed, most of the silk and satin weaving machines were small operators with one or two machines.The production mode is a production outsourcing mode of "putting out materials and picking up goods, selling with goods".The yarn and satin factory will send the production raw materials and loom materials to the machine owner, and the machine owner will go home to produce, and return it to the yarn and satin factory to settle the processing fee after completion.Satin is sold by Shaduzhuang.Under this decentralized production mode, product specifications are not suitable, and the quality is uncertain.

Fengsheng and the past also used this model. In the hands of Chen Lin’s father, he felt that the quality of such production products could not be guaranteed. Sometimes he saw new fancy varieties in Guangzhou, and brought them back to machine households for weaving. The whole process is also extremely slow.So I decided to set up our own weaving field.

"Unexpectedly, your father is quite far-sighted." Li Yaoer laughed.

"The chief has won the prize. However, it is not easy to set up a weaving factory by yourself. I don't know how many lawsuits have been filed just by lip service—there are many machine owners in this village, who live off their fertility and weaving materials. I heard that I My father wanted to set up a scene by himself, and they all came to make a noise. There were also many members of the clan. If my family was not from the eldest family, and the elders of the clan came forward to persuade them, this Fengshenghe probably would have been smashed to pieces."

"How did you solve it later? You probably can't understand it just by persuading it."

"It's nothing more than a waste of money to eliminate disasters." Chen Lin smiled wryly, "Later, my father discussed with the elders of the clan that anyone who was willing to work in the weaving workshop would receive a full income from the weaving workshop, and the weaving fee was the same as in the past; The above-mentioned men will each be given a bucket of rice every month. This will calm the matter down."

"It costs a lot!"

"Although it's a lot, it's worth it. If there is no protection from the clan, this weaving workshop is here, how can there be such peace! Not to mention the water bandits and gangsters peeping at the property, many machine households in this county are also They are staring at each other, wishing to have a good life and be burned to death! There are probably quite a few people who secretly cursed my father and son to die—now they have half their wishes fulfilled!" He sighed.

Li Yaoer remembered that when she first came to Fengshenghe, although the house was well preserved, there were signs of intentional damage to the internal facilities and machines.

Looting by rebels and bandits is nothing more than plundering soft goods. These cumbersome "money-making guys" are not interested in them, and they will not specifically destroy them. This obviously has the intention of venting their anger.

Reminiscent of the siege of Phoenix Mountain Villa when she was in Hangzhou, which almost caused a catastrophe.Although Hao Yuan was instigated by it, one of the reasons was the establishment of a series of sericulture improvements and silk reeling factories.

No matter how good the intention is for innovation and improvement, as long as vested interests are touched, it will inevitably lead to a counterattack.Thinking of this, she felt that she was really right in choosing Nansha, and a smile appeared on her face.said:
"It's not easy to do business since ancient times, especially such an earth-shattering business. But our Senate is either not doing it, or doing it to the end. Fengsheng and the Senate are now advancing and retreating, and will definitely become second to none in the future silk textile company."

(End of this chapter)