I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 520 Steam Spinning Machine

As for Wang Wenyuan's small act of engaging in academic thinking on the first day of class for the prince, Zhu Yijiong got the news from the secretary that afternoon.

Zhu Yijiong only thought for a moment before making arrangements: "Instruct the imperial kitchen to send Wang Qing a ginseng soup. It is autumn now, and the weather in the south is cold and gloomy. Wang Qing must take care of himself."

In the former Ming Dynasty, there was no imperial dining room, but it was in Guanglu Temple. Later, it was changed to the internal eunuch. Only the Qing Dynasty established the imperial dining room, and Zhu Yijiong fortunately did not change it and kept it.

"According to the order."

The female officer responded with her hands raised.

This ginseng soup may or may not have any hints, it all depends on how Wang Wenyuan understands it.

Moreover, with the rotating secretary keeping an eye on him, and the emperor setting aside time at night to examine the prince, there would definitely be no major problems.

It doesn't matter even if he is really crippled, the worst he can do is to replace him with a new crown prince. He is more than just a son like the prince.

……

Jinshen Palace.

Zhu Yijiong was reviewing memorials as usual, and he had just taken out one, but it was a memorial delivered by the governor of Fujian.

The governor of Fujian reported that the Fujian Cotton Textile Trading Company and many wealthy maritime merchants jointly petitioned the court, requesting the court to send troops to attack Chittagong, India, to further open up the Indian cotton market for the court.

As long as the imperial court is willing to send troops, not only can the cotton spinning merchants of Fujian and Zhejiang merchants join forces, they can even persuade Guangdong maritime merchants to jointly raise military expenses and ships for the imperial army, and subscribe for some overseas territorial rights that have not yet been conquered, just like before Same as the War to Reconquer Luzon.

Zhu Yijiong was not moved by the conditions of these merchants. It was simply that these merchants had tasted the sweetness from the previous Luzon War. I also saw that the imperial court was willing to travel thousands of miles across the sea to conquer the Dutch, their allies, in order to benefit from sea trade.

Yes, Chittagong now belongs to the British. Moreover, although Bangladesh has essentially become a separate warlord of the Mughal Empire, if China really wants to send troops to expedition here, it will inevitably provoke two countries at the same time.

Zhu Yijiong directly wrote to criticize: "The imperial court makes its own decisions on military and national affairs. How can it be decided through merchants?"

Although Zhu Yijiong also wants territory in India and Chittagong, which plays an important role in Bangladesh, he has to do it slowly. China now has enemies in his hands, and there are enemies everywhere in Asia.

Chittagong Port in India is too far away, and it is definitely impossible to send troops in a short time. Even if troops are to be sent, they cannot listen to these merchants. They will do whatever the court wants.

The influence of businessmen on politics is terrible. The Netherlands is now on the verge of collapse, and South Korea, where future presidents either "committed suicide" or were imprisoned as soon as they left office.

After processing the memorials from the governor of Fujian, I randomly selected a few more, which were basically memorials from various places. Among them, I also received the memorial from the governor of Zhejiang, which also mentioned the Zhejiang Commercial Bank's request for the imperial court to send troops to India.

Not surprisingly, it was also criticized.

I just reviewed it back and forth for half an hour, took a sip of tea and regained my composure. Then I took out another book and saw that the cover was actually a memorial handed over by the Academy of Sciences.

Today, the Ming Academy of Sciences has long been an official ministry of the imperial court. Although it does not participate in national political affairs, it still has the right to submit memorials. Moreover, the interior has been further refined. At least now Huang Wu, the dean, does not have to do everything personally and can concentrate on studying and improving steam engines and applying them to battleships.

The previous steamships were prototypes. Not to mention being used in battleships, they were difficult to transport even for normal shipping. Moreover, they ran out of fuel before running very far. Even the steam engines had various problems because they were running at full capacity. It is true. There is a long way to go.

Open the notebook and glance at it briefly. The steam cotton spinning machine has made a major breakthrough and can enter mass production.

Zhu Yijiong's eyes widened instantly. The memorial came from the steam engine civilian group of the Academy of Sciences. It was basically in vernacular, and there was no nonsense. It also came with the manufacturing drawings of a new steam spinning machine.

Taking out the drawings and combining them with the principle notes on the memorial, Zhu Yijiong studied them carefully for a long time before he finally figured out how this thing was different from previous cotton spinning machines.

To put it simply, compared with the original cotton spinning machine, a gadget-spindle wing is added. This thing can be installed on an entire mechanical twisting structure and cooperate with the machine to independently complete the twisting step that was almost impossible to complete before, greatly improving spinning efficiency.

Because whether it was the No. 1 steam cotton spinning machine or the later hydraulic spinning that took a different approach, manual assistance was required. The fiber strength of cotton is too weak, and it will easily break when twisted by a machine, so it must be twisted manually.

However, that is no longer needed.

With this new structure, not only the steam engine can be modified, but the hydraulic engine can also be installed.

Although Zhu Yijiong didn't understand the power of this coat-hanger-like structure at all, he knew just by looking at the experimental results and predicted efficiency that the traditional Chinese system of men farming and women weaving was on the verge of collapse.

Whether steam engines or hydraulic machines, as long as they are popularized and faster than human labor, hand spinning will definitely be gradually eliminated.

If this process is fast, it may take more than ten years, if it is slow, it will not exceed thirty years. Because businessmen pursue profit, when there is a faster and more efficient way, they will definitely promote it on a large scale. In the early years, they were just afraid that it would not be so efficient. Moreover, the truly world-famous silk weaving still requires manual spinning, and machine spinning can only weave coarse cloth.

As the mass production of steam spinning begins, not only will the hand-spun yarn in the Chinese market be harmed on a large scale, but the world market will also suffer huge losses.

Because as soon as the output of cotton yarn increased, Chinese merchants would join forces to fight a price war with the Europeans in order to sell as much as possible, constantly squeezing the price of cotton yarn and crowding out the spinning market of European colonies.

Spain's cotton yarn industry in Mexico must be the first to die, because as early as decades ago, they were already under the pressure of China's raw silk and cotton yarn. The governor was assassinated.

Destroying someone's wealth is like killing one's parents!

The Spaniards in Mexico are just dead bones in the grave. When they are finished, it will be the turn of the British in India. In a time and space without Zhu Yijiong, the British would have been like the Spanish in Mexico in a few decades, banning the purchase of Chinese raw materials to protect their country's cotton textile industry.

Of course, life will not be easy for Chinese merchants. Businessmen are seeking profits and using new machines to expand production. However, the Ming Dynasty's current weaving technology was unable to digest the rapidly increasing cotton yarn production in a short period of time. Many merchants would definitely suffer losses in the early stage, and may even go bankrupt.

It is normal to quote it to later generations. Some people hoard mining cards to make money, and everyone follows suit. However, the market cannot adapt to digest it in a short period of time.

The cabinet has also read this memorial from the Academy of Sciences, and they have different opinions.

Zhu Yijiong invited ministers to discuss, and Wang Li was the first to speak: "The new steam cotton spinning machine is indeed twice as efficient as the original manual labor, but it may also leave ordinary women without yarn to spin. Once this machine is widely used among the people, I'm afraid that the income of ordinary people's families will drop drastically, and the people will also be dissatisfied..."

Zhu Chengxun said: "The original cotton spinning machine has doubled its efficiency and is far more efficient than women's handicrafts. Now, if the newly improved steam cotton spinning machine really has the efficiency tested by the Academy of Sciences, how should the folk handmade textile industry deal with it?"

Wu Sidao was more rational: "This thing has already come out, and it has consumed a lot of financial resources and energy from the Academy of Sciences. How can it be abandoned? If so, what is the difference between us and the self-proclaimed pseudo-Qing Tatars?"

Other cabinet ministers also spoke one after another, and their opinions were completely inconsistent. At least half were worried about the new machine, and the other half were conservative and did not dare to promote it on a large scale.

Zhu Yijiong listened for a long time, thought carefully for a while, and finally made a final decision: "The new machine has come out. As Wu Qing said, there is no reason to abandon it? As for the women who can no longer make money by spinning, Then I went to find another way to make a living. Now the new Ming Dynasty has abolished the rule in the "Women's Commandments" that women are not allowed to appear in public. If their families do not allow it, they can go to the government to report it. Rural women can also help their husbands farm the land. Weaving and farming. When new machines are fully promoted and factories appear in large numbers, they can go to work in factories again."

After saying this, the cabinet ministers looked at each other in shock.

This means that I don't want to take care of it anymore and just force the implementation of the new machine. But there is no other way. In the early stage of the industrial revolution, people will inevitably suffer unemployment.

Is it just because of this that we don’t use new machines and don’t engage in industrialization?

If you don't do it, the European colonists will do it. Once they have endured the pain of industrialization, they will come to attack you, and then with their mature industrial system, they will destroy China's small peasant economy in one fell swoop.

Therefore, if it is directly promoted now, even if some people are affected, China is large enough, and it insists on implementing the New Deal reforms, and has moved a large number of landowners to the north and overseas places, and the vacant land has been distributed to countless people. local people.

With land, even if they lose their income from cotton spinning, farmers will not really be unable to survive. Moreover, the city's economy is becoming increasingly prosperous, which also means more job opportunities. Coupled with the new "Female Commandments" written by the Queen, more and more women are going to the city to work.

Only those landowners and gentry who are truly rich and wealthy will care about the lack of integrity for women to show up in public. Ordinary people want to make money to support their families and have more hope in life. Who cares about this?

Moreover, this is endorsed by the Empress, and even the Empress agrees. You scholars are ignorant.

Those scholars really don’t understand that after the previous literary prisons where people were arrested across the country, at least Zhu Yijiong is still alive, and no one dares to openly criticize these national affairs anymore. And when Zhu Yijiong dies, it will be at least several decades later. By then, the people will probably have adapted to it.

This is Zhu Yijiong's unintentional killing of two birds with one stone, allowing women to work in factories, which further liberates productivity.

Wang Yuan suddenly said: "Your Majesty, if the new steam cotton spinning machine is to be promoted, a large amount of coal will be needed. The nationwide corruption investigation last year found that a considerable number of officials were not ordinary corrupt officials. Instead, they colluded between the government and private parties and used coal mining as a bargaining chip. , accepting bribes and silver from it. Coal should also be mined by the government in accordance with the regulations of salt and iron, financed by the imperial court, and then jointly mined with private merchants, and heavily taxed."

This is following the path of the Qianlong Dynasty. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, coal was limited to daily use by the people, and coal was always open to private mining. The court only collected a commission from it and collected taxes. In many cases, it even provided low taxes and exemptions.

Until the Qianlong period, in order to further increase the revenue of the treasury (you know everything), coal mining began under the leadership of the government and jointly operated by government and businessmen.

Zhu Yijiong thought for a moment and nodded slightly: "It's accurate."

Wang Li added: "The northern provinces have just restored people's livelihood, and there is little vegetation in the north, so daily use is extremely dependent on coal. Especially Beizhili, which has been a coal-consuming area as early as the Ming Dynasty, cannot all be heavily taxed. Otherwise, the Northland People's livelihood will definitely be greatly affected, and I think it can be tried out in the south first, and then gradually promoted after seeing results. As for the coal tax in each province, it should also be adjusted according to the actual situation and cannot be set in stone."

Zhu Yijiong nodded and said: "As it should be, this matter will be handled by the cabinet with full authority."

Not only the provinces in the North, but even military heavyweights such as the Zunhua Iron Works also rely on the coal mines in the North.

In contrast, people in the south are not so dependent on coal mines. Those who really need coal in large quantities are mainly businessmen in the mining areas. Once steam spinning machines are promoted in the future, large-scale factories will definitely appear in large numbers, and the demand will only increase.

Speaking of which, since the steam spinning machine is feasible, is it feasible to use the steam engine to rifle the musket?

Fire blunderbuss doesn’t work, but what about artillery?

Zhu Yijiong thought about it and was going to mention it to the Academy of Sciences. If it can really be made, it will be a breakthrough for the Ming Dynasty firearms.

(End of this chapter)