prosperous age

Chapter 189 Chapter 188
Wei Guangde took the family letter from Lin Mao and cupped his hands to thank him.

Just as he was about to open it, Lin Mao said again: "Master Wei, let's go inside and have a look."

Hearing Lin Mao stop it again, Wei Guangde felt that there might be something in the letter that would not be known by others. This time he did not ignore it, but nodded and smiled: "Okay."

"I have to explain some things to Mr. Wei alone. Let me go in with Mr. Wei."

After a little hesitation, Lin Mao spoke again.

"Master Lin, please."

Although Wei Guangde was curious, he didn't ask, but stood up and stretched out his hand as a gesture of invitation.

Naturally, Lin Mao didn't dare to go forward, but bowed and stood beside Wei Guangde, waiting for Wei Guangde to take a step before following him in.

Wei Guangde led Lin Mao into the yard where he lived, and asked Zhang Ji to wait outside. Even the two people who followed Lin Mao stood quietly outside the door, and then they opened the door and entered the house.

"Master Lin, please sit down."

Wei Guangde smiled, and then sat down on the first seat, ignored Lin Mao, and picked up the envelope of the family letter, opened it, and pulled out the letter paper inside. He was a little anxious now, and he didn't know what the letter said. What are you doing so solemnly.

Soon, a few pages of letter paper were pulled out, and Wei Guangde unfolded them for a closer look, and then his face brightened, and the heart that was still suspended before was completely let go.

Let me just say, how can something happen at home, anyway, my family is also an official, and my father is a fifth-rank military officer.

The previous content is naturally that the father said that the family hopes that he can make persistent efforts in the imperial examination, and also told him not to get carried away after being awarded an official, and pay attention to his words and deeds.

Regarding this, Wei Guangde just said silently in his heart, "Father, you worry too much, your son hasn't become an official yet."

Naturally, the family is very happy with his grades, and then, then what?
Wei Guangde was shocked when he saw this, and his father entrusted Huitong Commercial Bank to transfer 2 taels of silver to him.

The last letter mentioned the matter of giving money, but it didn't say how much. Now it's all right, I know the answer, 2 taels of silver.

The money was not shipped directly from Jiujiang, but the father sent the money to the Lin family in Jiujiang, and the Lin family notified the Jingcheng Commercial Bank to give it to Wei Guangde, saving money and transporting it, which is much safer.

Wei Guangde was shocked by the following content, but he didn't express it. Instead, he folded the letter and put it back in the envelope and put it in his arms. Then he raised his head and smiled at Lin Mao: "Master Lin, I already know, but I don't know what the money is. ?”

"Master Wei, the silver is in the commercial bank. You can come to collect it at any time, or you can send it by someone from my side. After all, there is a lot of silver, and it takes at least two big boxes to hold it. It is not good to send it hastily."

Lin Mao stood up now and said to Wei Guangde.

Indeed, 2 taels of silver is not a decimal, the key is the large size.

The 1000 taels of silver that Wei Guangde received at the beginning was a wooden box the size of a storage box in later generations, weighing dozens of catties, and it was quite laborious to carry it.

2 taels, if you think about it, it will be troublesome to carry the box in.

"The money should be placed with Master Lin first, and I will go to get it when I need money here."

Wei Guangde said after thinking about it for a while.

"Well."

While speaking, Lin Mao took out a note from his bosom, which was stamped with several emblems of the Lin family.

Lin Mao handed the note to Wei Guangde with both hands and said, "Master Wei, please keep the note. Please take this note with you when you want to use silver in the future. Record how much you take on the note, and then use your seal."

Wei Guangde took a look at it and nodded, "Okay, thank you very much."

But immediately, Wei Guangde thought of one thing, that is, Zhang Hongfu helped him lend money in Jiujiang.

2 taels of silver, I definitely won't need such a silver in the short term, and it's definitely not appropriate to keep it at home.

The way for future generations to make money is naturally to mobilize money to make more money to satisfy their own consumption in the capital.

He doesn't know how to make soap, he doesn't know how to burn glass and cement, and Wei Guangde doesn't like the income from buying land and collecting rent, so he can only make money in the simplest way.

I am still living in the Jiujiang Guild Hall for free, and besides the money for food, I also spend dozens of taels of silver every month, all of which are spent on food.

Now Wei Guangde eats restaurants for three meals a day, so naturally he spends a lot of money.

After buying the courtyard in the inner city, he should have to hire talented people. It is obviously not enough to have Zhang Ji and Li San by his side.

But finally there is silver, still 2 taels, more than double what Wei Guangde expected, at first he thought it would be good to get 5000 taels.

But thinking about the content behind, Wei Guangde only looked at the outline, but he also understood what happened.

"Master Lin, please take a trip, let's go out to eat to express our thanks."

Wei Guangde thought that if someone came to give money, he should thank him no matter what, so he said.

"Don't dare to have Master Laowei, the little old man will not be out for a short time, and he will go to the store to have a look."

Lin Mao didn't agree, but said that he wanted to go back. The business in the store was still busy, but he still smiled at Wei Guangde after getting up: "Next month, the Twelve Small Store will open in a new store in Chongwenmen Li Street. Is time rewarding?"

"Oh."

Wei Guangde was taken aback for a moment, then understood something, and immediately cupped his hands and said: "We must go when the time comes."

Wei Guangde thought about it, maybe it's the opening of a new store, find some official people to support the scene, maybe the black and white will pay more attention in the future.

Wei Guangde has been in the capital for a long time, but he has also seen the fans of Jinyiwei and Dongchang walking on the street, collecting monthly money from the shopkeepers. Wei Guangde understands this as "safety fee".

Open the door to do business, what you want is to make money with harmony.

"At that time, the second child will come to the door to invite the adults to be of the same age as the three of you. Please, Mr. Wei, please tell the second child in advance."

Wei Guangde readily agreed, it's actually very simple to celebrate the opening of the new store, and you can also eat and drink, why not do it.

After seeing Lin Mao off, Wei Guangde asked Zhang Ji to bring him some food and wine. Today he will not go out to eat, but eat at home.

I won't live here for long, the contract over there is signed, and I will move there after packing up.

Wei Guangde made up his mind, and then he took out his family letter and read it.

This time I will not read the previous content, mainly the following paragraphs.

Well, although I came here through time travel, this era is like this. I had a hunch long ago that I couldn't get rid of the shackles of this era.

Marriage is the order of the parents and the words of the matchmaker.

In fact, even in later generations, although free love is very common, the concepts that affect marriage, such as being married to each other, are still deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Many people don't admit it with their mouths, but they actually agree with it in their hearts.

In the letter, the old man didn't say which family he was famous for, but the other party revealed between the lines seemed to be a family with a strong background.

Wei Guangde read it carefully twice before refolding the letter and putting it back in the envelope, thinking about how to reply.

Forget it, let's finish what we wanted to do first.

Wei Guangde put the letter in the box and put it away. There were already two letters from home lying quietly in it, but he only replied to one.

At night, Wei Guangde lay in bed, thinking about what to do next.

The imperial court explicitly stopped the tribute trade, but apparently the business resumed, and the imperial court also knew that it was making money, and wanted to make more money to meet the imperial court's expenses, so it wanted to increase silk production.

In Zhejiang, a large amount of land was used for planting mulberry and raising silkworms, increasing the supply of raw materials and weaving more silk.

Looking back, it would be better to check the current annual silk production of the Ming Dynasty, Wei Guangde thought.

Thinking about doing it, after Wei Guangde arrived at the Hanlin Academy the next day, he found the weaving data in the Cangshu Pavilion over the years, and learned about the official textile statistics of this period.

Wei Guangde also makes clothes on weekdays, but he prefers Songjiang velvet fabric, which is also the most expensive textile fabric in this era. A piece of cloth is ten feet, that is, one hundred feet, and the market price in Jiujiang is as high as 86 taels of silver.

The price of silk and silk is not cheap, but the price of silk is cheaper per foot.

Unlike cotton, silk can be woven very long. Generally, a piece of silk is only three feet, about thirty feet, and the market price is 6 taels of silver.

Wei Guangde couldn't understand it. Cotton cloth was much cheaper than silk in the later generations, but in the Ming Dynasty, it was obviously the opposite of the later generations, and cotton cloth was more expensive.

After finding the information, Wei Guangde slowly looked through it in his public house. If you don’t look at it, you don’t know. There are really many textile centers in the Ming Dynasty, both in the north and the south.

Not only the silk weaving industry in Suzhou, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Huzhou, Hangzhou, and Nanjing in the south of the Yangtze River has been very prosperous, but also the silk weaving industry in Beijing, Zhuozhou, Taiyuan in the north and Chengdu in the southwest.

In Wei Guangde's original impression, there should be the most lawsuits, and the reality is the same, but there are also many textile workshops in other places, and the scale is not small.

The official textile institutions include the "Two Beijing Dyeing Bureaus", which are divided into Beijing and Nanjing Nei Textile and Dyeing Bureaus, Nanjing Libotang, Suzhou Textile and Dyeing Bureaus and Hangzhou Textile and Dyeing Bureaus.

Wei Guangde also knew the number of workers employed in these government textile workshops, and there were more than 6000, which did not include private workshops.

According to official statistics, the national production of satin and cloth in the 34th year of Jiajing was as high as more than 200 million pieces. This does not include the cloth woven by the farmers themselves, which is the output reported by the major workshops, because the Ming Dynasty taxed the production of these cloths. .

According to the current tax rate of [-] per cent, the government collected [-] bolts of satin and cloth, and most of the government-made products were used by the inner court and paid by the outer court.

It is not clear how many textiles are sold overseas each year, and Wei Guangde is hard to say anything, but it is clear that the textile industry in the entire Ming Dynasty is still very strong, and the owners of the textile workshops are very rich.

Now the court is discussing changing rice and mulberry planting in Zhejiang, which is naturally to increase the production of raw silk and prepare for the greater expansion of silk and satin workshops. It can be seen that the foreigners prefer silk from the Ming Dynasty, and they are not interested in cotton cloth. big.

Well, Wei Guangde has carefully looked through the data of loom and cloth production in the past few decades, and has a general understanding of the production capacity of the Ming Dynasty in textiles. According to the number of workshop looms and cloth recorded above, it seems that close to saturation.

Wei Guangde is very clear that those people who are now proposing to change rice and mulberry to increase the supply of raw silk are in all likelihood not an idea of ​​expanding foreign trade, but taking the opportunity to annex fertile fields in various parts of the south of the Yangtze River.

Wei Guangde pondered for a while, knowing that such an operation would definitely not work.

The current implementation of "changing rice and mulberry planting" is somewhat similar to the administrative orders of later generations, and the final results are generally not very good. Only by driving market demand can many problems be avoided.

If I want to climb out of this quagmire, I must come up with a better solution.

Is market demand pulling?

Since someone proposes to increase the production of silk, it means that the increased production can be fully absorbed by the market. At least whoever proposes it must come up with a solution.

Wei Guangde doesn't need to think about the terminal, so the rest is production.

Let the owners of the textile workshop expand the scale of the workshop and increase the number of looms. As the output expands, there will naturally be a greater demand for raw materials. When the output cannot be raised in the short term, they compete for the small market supply. It can only be snatched by competing to raise prices.

The price of raw materials has risen, which has attracted farmers to voluntarily switch from growing rice to growing mulberry and raising silkworms.

If you voluntarily change the use of the field, it is impossible for everyone to flock to it.

According to Wei Guangde's understanding of the common people today, although they have various problems, they are very real. Even if they find that planting mulberry and silkworms is more profitable, they will not use all the fields for this at once, but only part of them. The land is used to grow rice and mulberry.

In fact, Wei Guangde found out that in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an imperial decree to encourage the cultivation of mulberry, sericulture and cotton.

Thinking about this well, the only thing Wei Guangde is not sure about now is whether the increased silk will be marketable and how to make the owner of the textile workshop willing to increase the number of looms. As long as these two problems can be solved, then there will be no change Planting mulberries can also greatly increase silk production in a few years.

Well, I still need to figure out the first question, the market, whether it is really sold overseas as I guessed.

Wei Guangde knows that these days, both East and West like silk, that is, Japan in the east and Arabia and Europe in the west. It is said that if a piece of silk is shipped over, the price will double and there will be people scrambling for it.

Of course, unlike in Daming, those who can afford Daming silk there are rich local people, and ordinary people certainly cannot afford it.

In Daming, the situation was similar. The common people wore homemade clothes or ordinary cotton clothes, and the fine cotton and satin were not affordable.

While looking through the materials, Wei Guangde also accidentally discovered something he didn't know before. Cotton was not present in China since ancient times, but was introduced to the Central Plains at the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty. Before that, it was only planted in a small amount in the south. , mostly used by local ethnic minorities for spinning and weaving.

That is to say, when the Ming Dynasty was founded, the cotton production in the mainland of the Ming Dynasty was not large, and it gradually expanded after more than a hundred years of promotion. Not only the planting technology has improved, but also the cotton varieties and grades. It is optimized a lot.

Just like the Songjiang flannelette that Wei Guangde likes, it is the top quality cotton cloth now.

Who should I ask for news?

Wei Guangde is in trouble again now.

Before Chen Jin and the others told everything they knew, Wei Guangde asked in detail at the time, but because he didn't know about the Shibo Department, he forgot to ask about the silk market. This is also the reason for the inertia of thinking. Wei Guangde thought that China Since ancient times, silk has never been worried about selling, as many foreigners as there are produced.

(End of this chapter)