I want to be emperor

Chapter 790
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Although the Great Chu Empire has stepped into the industrial revolution, and ships and trains have appeared and been applied on a large scale, the Great Chu Empire is still culturally not much different from three or forty years ago.

The same is true for clothing. In today's Great Chu Empire, the right lapel is still a very important clothing feature. Even double-breasted clothes are relatively rare, and even double-breasted clothes cannot be used as formal dress to attend some formal occasions.

For contemporary Chu people, the traditional loose and elegant Hanfu is still the most important attire. They can wear other clothes in daily life, such as professional attire similar to military uniforms that have appeared in recent years, but in formal occasions, Hanfu is still the most important thing. The only choice.

The official uniforms of officials are still Confucian uniforms based on blue, and the official court uniforms of officials are traditional Hanfu.

Even the students are dressed in very traditional scholarly attire, with Confucian uniforms and square scarves, which is the standard attire for contemporary students of the Great Chu Empire.

The only thing that has changed a lot is work clothes, because work needs to consider convenience, and the loose and elegant Hanfu is not so suitable, so business clothes gradually appeared.

The professional attire evolved from military uniforms, and the military uniforms of the Chu army were based on the needs of combat, taking into account the convenience and beauty of combat.

But when combat and work requirements are not considered, people still prefer to wear traditional Hanfu in their daily life.

Not to mention when attending formal occasions, men in the middle and upper class tend to wear formal Hanfu with silk as the main fabric.

The traditional dress mentioned by Boss Chen refers to this kind of silk-woven Hanfu.

Let’s not talk about other things about this kind of Hanfu. The important feature is just one word: expensive!

After all, silk is used as the raw material, and things like silk belong to the category of luxury fabrics, no matter before or now.

Although the silk production in the Great Chu Empire is increasing day by day, the domestic demand is also increasing day by day. Even if there are modern steam factories for silk drawing, silk weaving, printing and dyeing and other processes, it is difficult for raw materials such as silkworm cocoons to be produced. increased with the progress of industrialization.

Silkworm cocoons, so far in the Great Chu Empire, still require artificial breeding, and it is difficult to carry out industrialized breeding, but after modern cultivation, the quality of silkworm cocoons is better, easier to feed, and easier to feed. At the same time, the output is larger.

But in essence, the source of silk production has not changed much.

This also limited the production of silk. Coupled with the rapid economic development within the Great Chu Empire, people's demand for high-grade fabrics such as silk was increasing year by year, which further raised the price of silk.

In recent years, due to the huge domestic demand, the silk export volume in the Great Chu Empire has been decreasing year by year... This has also led to a gradual increase in the price of silk in Europe and other overseas regions.

There are fewer European nobles who can afford silk now... It's not that they have fewer nobles or less money, it's just that the price of silk has increased.

The reduction in silk exports is also an important feature of the foreign trade of the Great Chu Empire in the past ten years, that is, the export volume of primary products such as silk and tea has been reduced year by year.

However, the total amount of export trade has not decreased, but has increased rapidly. The increased share mainly comes from a variety of industrial products, among which the growth rate of defense products is the most obvious.

The export of silk has decreased, but the domestic price is still extremely high, and the price in the Americas is not cheap, and high-end silk is even more expensive.

It is not cheap for Song Erniu to have a silk Hanfu.

To be honest, when he came to a tailor shop specializing in high-end dresses in Shuanghe County, after asking the prices of dresses made of various silk fabrics, he almost left without turning around!

This price is too expensive.

And if you buy this, it's not just one piece, but a whole set of many pieces.

You have to have trousers, you have to have a top with long hems and wide sleeves, and you have to have a tunic underneath.

Then it has to be paired with a pair of well-made, purely handcrafted traditional men's shoes, such as cocked toe soap boots.In addition, you can also choose black leather shoes that have been popular in recent years. The middle and upper classes of the Great Chu Empire are very fond of black shiny leather shoes. In addition to daily wear, some people have begun to wear them with traditional dresses on formal occasions.

So if you see a man from Chu State wearing a loose and elegant Hanfu and a pair of modern black leather shoes, don’t be surprised...it’s normal.

Even to some extent, this is the integration of tradition and the modern industrialization of the Great Chu Empire.

Of course, whether it is boots made of traditional crafts or high-end leather shoes made of modern crafts, they are not cheap!
Then, when attending formal occasions, in addition to clothes and boots, hats are also needed. Nowadays, adult men in the upper class of Chu State attend some formal occasions, but if they are not officials, they generally wear black domed and hard-shelled capes. It's called a bowler hat.

Officials or nobles and other higher-level people generally wear beam crowns. This thing is part of the court dress, and not everyone in the Great Chu Empire can wear it.

Because the beam crown continues the thousand-year-old system, the details are strictly distinguished according to the grade of the wearer.

Just like the scarlet court attire, it is the official court attire for officials above the fourth rank, and ordinary people cannot wear it.

Although the Great Chu Empire has relaxed a lot in terms of etiquette, there are still some restrictions. For example, yellow is the exclusive color for the royal family, crimson court clothes are worn by officials of the fourth rank and above, and Liang Guan is the hat worn by officials and nobles.

Under such circumstances, ordinary middle and upper-class people without official status can only choose other hats when attending formal occasions. Finally, under the influence of the upper class, they wear black domed and hard-shelled capes. There are many subsequent variants. Song Er Niu chose a black round-top hard-shell wide-brimmed hat, which is actually one of the variants of the Futou. It has only become popular in recent years, and some young people prefer it.

This thing seems to be common, but if it is to be matched with a dress, it is basically a top hat made by a master craftsman with exquisite craftsmanship, and the materials are basically top-notch and very expensive.

In addition to the three major items of hats, clothes, and shoes, there are other odds and ends, such as belts... This ghost thing is also expensive.

Then there is the jade pendant hanging on the waist.

When men in Chu State wear traditional Hanfu, they must hang something around their waists, especially jade pendants.

The jade pendant can not only be used as a decoration, but also has a practical function, that is, to hold down the hem of the Hanfu... so that the hem will not fly with just two steps!

The elegant sense of Hanfu means that the hem of the sleeves looks smooth and elegant, but it means that the hem flies around or even lifts up!

In the words of later generations, it is probably that what is wanted is the black long straight in the girl's hairstyle, which looks soft and elegant... instead of the black long mess, which looks like a crazy woman.

Therefore, the jade pendant hanging around the waist is very important.

This kind of obvious small accessories is often used by the middle and upper class to show their status and even financial resources.

After all, jade can be cheap or expensive, and some varieties that look good and are slightly boasted by people will be fired at a high price.

Of course, its price depends on the popularity... After all, this thing is not gold, and the output of jade is actually a lot.

As for whether the product is good or not, and whether it is worth money or not, this is human wisdom. Some people think that pure white is better, some people think that pure green is better, and some people think that white with green is better... In short, the price of this thing is not expensive. Look at what varieties people are touting and what varieties are popular during this period.

The well-known jade mining, production and sales one-stop enterprise in the Great Chu Empire: the Royal Jewelry Company under the Royal Assets Division has been advocating emerald jade for the past ten years,
After ten years of hype, the jadeite jade that was not worth a lot of money was abruptly fried, and the price soared by more than a hundred times.

You ask why you want to promote jade... Because the Royal Jewelry Company obtained the jade mining rights in Yongchangfu, Yunnan Province 12 years ago, and then dug out a large pile of jade, which is called Yongchang jade locally.

But this thing is not worth the price!

In order to increase the price of their Yongchang jade, they began to shamelessly promote and hype, and launched the jade brand of "Jade", and took the upper-level route, sending jadeite to the royal family.

Well, that's right, 'Emerald', it's not the name of some kind of jade, it's just a brand name of Yongchang Jade under the Royal Jewelry Company, which owns the perfect patents of the brand.

Jade jade has taken the top royal route, and then gradually sank to the noble group, the bureaucratic gentry group. Although the name of jadeite jade cannot be compared with Hetian jade, its value has increased by a hundred times compared to before.

The Royal Jewelry Company, which owns the mining rights of the entire Yongchang Jade Mining Area, makes a lot of money and has contributed a lot of profits to the Royal Assets Division year after year.

The jade pendant Song Erniu chose is a jadeite jade. Although this item is not comparable to the top jades such as Hetian jade and Lantian jade, it can be regarded as a second-rate jade in recent years.

After getting the whole set of clothes and accessories, it cost Song Erniu more than 70 Chu Yuan.

As far as this price is concerned, it is already considered relatively low in traditional dresses, and in the words of later generations, it is an entry-level dress.

No matter how expensive it is, it's not that Song Erniu can't afford it, but he can't bear it... As a child from a poor family, if you ask him to spend more than 70 yuan to match a traditional dress, he already feels it is very luxurious, so spend more For the money, he would rather not go to that party.

This is also because he has made a lot of money in the past two or three months. His canvas tooling business is doing very well, and he can sell dozens of sets of clothes every day. In order to meet the needs of the market, he has continuously recruited more workers. I bought more than a dozen more pedal sewing machines.

Now his clothes are in short supply, and he is considering further upgrading his small workshop and turning it into a formal garment factory.

With the money in his hands, he also has greater ambitions to further expand the scale, so he went to the businessmen's gathering in Shuanghe County.

Make some contacts to prepare for subsequent expansion or even set foot in other industries.

Otherwise, he would be reluctant to part with this suit.

After preparing the dress, Song Erniu followed Boss Chen to a party in a short time.

The initiator of this party was a manager of Dongyang Trading Company's branch in Shuanghe County. Although the manager seemed to be just a part-time worker, there were not many other small businessmen present, but his energy status was comparable to Song Er's. Niu, Boss Chen and the others are much stronger.

After all, he represents the Dongyang Trading Company, and the Dongyang Trading Company is still one of the only two armed trading companies in the Great Chu Empire, specializing in business in the American region.

Although both the Eastern Trading Company and the Western Trading Company have lost their trade franchises over time, they still retain a large number of assets, including a large number of colonial properties, mining rights, and control of a large number of indigenous countries. channels and assets.

Its huge size made these two armed trading companies occupy an extremely important position in the foreign trade of the Great Chu Empire.

This also has a huge impact.

In the small place of Shuanghe County, Dongyang Trading Company is the largest company. They own the largest gold mining area in Shuanghe County, and they are also the only gold mining company in this area. Except for the mining area of ​​Dongyang Trading Company, others There is no organized mining in the mining area, and some gold diggers do it alone.

In addition to gold mining, Dongyang Trading Company owns many industries in Shuanghe County, including shops, inns and the like.

There is also a super-large farm in the area north of Shuanghe County, where a large amount of cotton, wheat and other crops are grown, and the manpower used is not immigrants from the country, but military prisoners of war.

Well, in the gold mining area of ​​Dongyang Trading Company, apart from the technicians and managers who are from Chu, the miners who actually mine are actually prisoners of war.

As for immigrants from their own country, they won’t dig mines for you anymore... With this kind of skill, it’s better for them to mine gold and mine themselves, and it’s better than mining if they just go to the neighborhood and apply for a piece of free land for farming!
This is also the problem faced by Toyo Trading Company and other companies that do some labor-intensive business overseas, that is, labor is in short supply, and it is difficult to obtain local immigrants to serve as these cheap labor, and the cost is too high!
Therefore, it is often adopted to cooperate with the military to use prisoners of war, or simply set up mines in indigenous-controlled areas, and then hire local indigenous people to dig mines and open plantations. Cooperate with local rulers to export labor services.

During foreign wars, the military always obtains a large number of prisoners of war. The military often organizes these prisoners of war into camps and sends them to work in the construction sites or plantations of the two major armed trading companies. The rations of the prisoners of war can also be subsidized to the military.

However, it is only limited to some newly developed territories or colonies. If the local development matures, the military will also transfer these prisoners of war. For example, there were many prisoners of war working in Jinshan City before, but now there are no prisoners of war. traced.

The large farms of the Dongyang Trading Company in the area north of Shuanghe County used this method of hiring prisoners of war and produced a large amount of grain and cotton.

In Shuanghe County, Dongyang Trading Company accounts for a very large proportion of the local economy, gold mining, food supply, and cotton supply all occupy a very large volume.

Such an Dongyang trading company, casually revealing a little bit, is enough for small businessmen like Boss Chen and Song Erniu to eat up their mouths.

At today's gathering, Song Erniu had a cheeky face. After being introduced by Boss Chen, he met Manager Li of the Shuanghe County Branch of Dongyang Trading Company. Manager Li heard that Song Erniu was in the canvas tooling business, and this kind of When the tooling was cheap and wear-resistant, I immediately became interested.

There are a large number of employees in their Dongyang trading company, and there is a great demand for this kind of cheap and wear-resistant tooling.

Seeing that Manager Li was interested, Song Erniu immediately warmly introduced him.

After listening to Song Erniu for a few minutes, the middle-aged Manager Li took out a famous card and said, "It sounds good, so, tomorrow, no, I have something to do tomorrow, and you have the famous card in the morning the day after tomorrow." , come to me with samples, let’s have a good chat about this kind of canvas tooling.”

As he said that, Manager Li looked at Song Erniu with a smile on his face: "Young man, prepare well when you go back!"

Song Erniu took over the famous card and promised repeatedly that he would be there on time the morning after tomorrow.

When Manager Li turned around to chat with other people, Boss Chen on the side showed envious eyes and said: "You are going to get rich, this is Dongyang Company, if you give you an order, it will be at least tens of thousands of sets .”

Song Erniu also showed a smile on his face. It was the right time to come to this party today. Although the dress he wore cost him tens of Chu Yuan, he did not say anything else. Manager, knowing that they are interested in purchasing, then it is worth it.

(End of this chapter)