I

In Nanjing, Bao Xinglong's cloth spreads.

As soon as the store clerk Yu Zuden removed the door panel, he saw several cloth merchants standing outside. He nodded and bowed with a smile and said, "Gentlemen, please come inside quickly!"

"Easy to say, easy to say!" The cloth merchants held their hands and smiled.

Yu Zudeng was immediately confused as to why these living ancestors were being polite to him.

In the fabric sales segment, in the early stage, it was mainly divided into cloth shops and cloth merchants.

A cloth dealer is a buyer of cloth, and there are two types: a dealer and a dealer.

The villagers choose to open a shop in a town, and the women weave cotton yarn and cloth for sale, and they rarely pay in cash. The woman sells cotton yarn, and the cloth shop gives the cotton; the woman sells cotton cloth, and the cloth shop gives the cotton yarn. In this way, the cloth industry can reduce financial pressure, and women do not have to go elsewhere to purchase raw materials.

When they leave the village, they send their clerks to villages and towns to purchase, so that farmers can sell yarn and cloth without going to the city. However, this kind of transaction reduces the price very seriously, and the shady tooth shop can even reduce the price by 30% to 40%.

As for the cloth merchants, they come to the cloth store to purchase goods wholesale, and then transport them to other places for retail.

There is a saying: Yaxing serves the cloth merchants like a prince, and fighting for the cloth merchants is like fighting against each other.

In front of the cloth dealers, the cloth merchants are like living ancestors. In order to compete for a cloth merchant, several cloth shops are like fighting.

So Yu Zudeng is very puzzled today, why are the ancestors of the cloth merchants so polite?

"Xiao Yu, go and make some bowls of tea!"

Zhou Ruodou, the shopkeeper of the cloth shop, came to the lobby with a smile and gave Yu Zudeng a few instructions.

Then the shopkeeper said: "Everyone, please take a seat."

A cloth merchant had just sat down and without waiting for the tea to be brought, he said directly: "No more gossip, I will raise the price by half a percent to get cloth. It doesn't matter whether it's plain weave cloth, twill cloth, linen or starch cloth, I'll raise the price by half a percent. Take as much as you can.”

"You want to get cloth even if you raise the price by half a percent? I'll raise the price by 10%!" Another cloth merchant sneered.

Shopkeeper Zhou Ruodou felt proud, and then complained: "There is a shortage of fabrics recently, and we really can't get that much. How about we follow the Ministry of War's lead in purchasing fabrics and have a hidden bid? The one with the lowest price in the Ministry of War will win, and we will win the bid with the highest price."

"Okay, let's do it quickly. If you can't do it here, I'll go to Jiangxi and Hunan to have a look." A cloth merchant said impatiently.

A small cloth shop also sells cloth through bidding.

After the business was finished, shop assistant Yu Zuden asked curiously: "Shopkeeper, why are the cloths selling so well this year?"

Zhou Ruodou explained with a smile: "Japan opened its ports this year, and I heard that two ports will be added. In the past, Japan's business was dominated by Fujian maritime merchants. Now that more ports have been opened, maritime merchants from Jiangsu and Zhejiang are asking merchants everywhere to help them get goods. Not only cotton cloth, but also tea, silk, porcelain, tobacco, candles... they can buy everything. Anyway, they have to rely on large quantities and low prices to grab business in Shijian and Xiaguan. The cotton cloth in Jiangnan has been wiped out by cloth merchants. Well, I actually came to Nanjing to purchase goods."

Yu Zudeng asked doubtfully: "Japan is so big, can it eat so much food?"

"In addition to Japan, there are also North Korea and Liaodong," Zhou Ruodou said. "His Majesty canonized the king of North Korea, and all ports in North Korea are open. No matter how small and poor North Korea is, it is still a country, and it is also very cold, so cotton must be easy to sell. This There is also Liaodong, which has a small population but a large number of troops stationed there. The military uniforms for soldiers are issued by the Ministry of War, but the daily clothes of soldiers and their families have to be bought by themselves. There are also Henan, Shandong, Bei In Zhili, business is also recovering this year. Even cloth merchants under Li Zicheng came to purchase. Now there is a shortage of goods everywhere. Do you see how worried those cloth merchants are? In the past, cloth merchants lowered prices and turned us into grandchildren. Now cloth merchants Raise the price and we all become grandfathers.”

Yu Zudeng suddenly realized: "The shopkeeper has a broad vision, we never thought that there is such a reason."

Zhou Ruodou stroked his beard and smiled: "These are all thanks to His Majesty. After a few years of retreat, there were wars and disasters in various places, and there were countless casualties in the north. The business of selling cloth in the south is not good, not to mention Nanjing, even in Susong and Changhu. Some weaving workshops have closed down. After His Majesty ascended the throne, business has become better and better. The population in the south is increasing day by day, and the north is about to be stable. Many immigrants are moving north. Where do they not need clothes? And Japan, North Korea, Liaodong, It’s a big business again. You’re a good guy, so I’ll put in a good word to my employer and make you the fourth shopkeeper of the cloth shop in two years.”

"Thank you so much, shopkeeper!" Yu Zudeng was overjoyed.

Zhou Ruodou said with a smile: "Your father saved my life. You are also smart, can write and do math. Follow me and work hard. In short, you will not suffer any loss."

Yu Zudeng bent over and offered tea: "Uncle Zhou, please have tea!"

Zhou Ruodou used the lid of the bowl to put away the tea powder, and said with emotion: "We are lucky, we met the wise sage. What kind of life did we live in the past few years? The common people can't afford to eat, how can they dare to wear new clothes? Even the wealthy family , there are also people who make do with sewing, but they can't sell much fabric all year round. Today's business is getting better and better day by day. If your Majesty can take over all of the north, it will be really easy."

"Isn't that right? Your Majesty is such a good emperor." Yu Zuden said with a smile.

Zhou Ruodou thought to himself: Your Majesty is doing well in everything, but he doesn't know that men are superior to women, which makes women become perverse. Business has been doing well in the past two years, and I have a lot of money. I wanted to take a concubine, but I couldn't find a suitable one!

The north suffers from frequent wars, natural disasters and plagues. The population is scarce, especially women.

When the Datong government organized immigration, female immigrants received special treatment. As long as they take the initiative to sign up, the leaving home allowance given by the government to women will be doubled on the basis of male immigrants.

Even some prostitutes along the Qinhuai River signed up to move to the north. Because they heard that once they arrived in the north, they would not have to worry about getting married. In rural areas, you can be allocated fields, in cities you can be allocated houses, and in counties where the population is particularly scarce, you can even be allocated shops!

Under such circumstances, who would still want to be a concubine?

In the past, she worked as a concubine for a wealthy man. Although she was despised on the surface, she was secretly envied. Nowadays, whether overtly or covertly, concubines are despised.

It's okay if the husband's family has an official status, but if he is just an ordinary rich man and wants to marry as a concubine, he will definitely be considered to be greedy for enjoyment and lazy.

Zhou Ruodou, the shopkeeper of the cloth shop, asked a matchmaker to look for a concubine for a year, but he couldn't even find a suitable concubine.

Zhou Ruodou sighed: "Chongzhen was really good at that time. You can take a concubine with just a few taels of silver. In times of famine, you don't even have to pay for it. You can get one for a few buckets of rice. I also took a concubine. I am gentle and virtuous. It’s a pity that she died in childbirth.”

Yu Zudeng's mind was not on concubinage. He said: "Shopkeeper, I heard that many textile factories have been opened in Changhu, Susong. In the past two years, some people have also opened textile factories in the east of Nanjing. They use new spinning machines and new The loom can spin yarn and cloth very quickly, and you can earn more money. How about giving your boss some advice and asking him to open a textile factory in the east of the city?"

Zhou Ruodou said angrily: "We are a cloth shop. We purchase cloth, not spin it ourselves. Do your job well and don't think about what you have or don't have."

But Yu Zudeng said: "In those textile factories, cloth merchants come to buy the fabrics woven by them. They don't have to worry about selling them at all, and they don't ask our cloth shop to help them sell them."

"That's a bad rule!"

Zhou Ruodou became more and more angry as he spoke: "Since the Jiajing period, there has been a cotton cloth guild in Jinling. At that time, the owners of all the cloth shops in the city sat together and decided on the charter. Cloth merchants from other places could only find cloth shops to sell cloth. Which cloth merchant If he dared to break the rules, no cloth shop in the city would sell him any cloth! Even if someone opened a textile workshop at that time, the cotton cloth would have to be sold by the cloth shop on his behalf."

Yu Zudeng asked: "Why are there no such rules now?"

Zhou Ruodou sighed: "Well, during the Chongzhen period, the cloth shop business was not easy to do. Those cloth merchants are all living ancestors, so it's not up to them to decide what they want to do? Now the cloth shop business is easy to do, but Your Majesty is not allowed to establish such rules. , saying it is Shilaoshizi’s industry monopoly.”

Yu Zudeng said with a smile: "Your Majesty has few rules, and he does not allow many rules among the people. Previously, private merchants were not allowed to have flower houses without government permission. Nowadays, there are more and more flower houses in Nanjing."

Hualou, whose scientific name is "Zhiyun Brocade Jacquard Machine", has a total of 1924 parts.

Yun brocade is a royal tribute. The emperor's dragon robe and the queen's phoenix robe are all made of Yun brocade. Even if the imperial court's control declined at the end of the Ming Dynasty and it wanted to build flower houses and weave brocades, it would still need to be taken care of by the government. If you are not careful, there will be a disaster of confiscating the house.

Nowadays, the Datong court no longer restricts, but encourages merchants to weave brocade.

Nanjing quickly became the center of brocade textiles. In just a few years, the number of brocade looms in and outside the city grew to three to four thousand. And it is still increasing, solving the employment problem of tens of thousands of people.

Many wealthy people among the people have also started to wear Yun brocade. After all, it used to be the material of dragon robes and phoenix robes.

Even the word "Yunjin" was named by Zhao Han. Because it was necessary to enter the royal warehouse in the Ming Dynasty, it was called Kujin and Kudan.

Japanese envoy Lin Luoshan saw Yun Jin some time ago and his eyes were straightened.

Lin Luoshan has seen brocade before, but Yun brocade is the best among brocades. Since the Yuan Dynasty, it can only be used exclusively by the royal family, and at most it can only be given to ministers who have made meritorious services.

Because he liked it so much, Lin Luoshan wanted to learn the technology secretly and went to the Yunjin Manufacturing Factory.

But the more it turns around, the more stupid it becomes, the brocade loom with 1924 parts. Not to mention stealing, even if you explain it carefully to him, it will take a month or two before he can understand it a little bit.

British writer Peter Mundy recorded Yun brocade in his book: "Nobles from various European countries thought silk was a divine creation and a rare treasure in the world. They certainly cannot understand or even imagine the existence of Yun brocade. Forgive me. The vocabulary is limited, or in other words, there is no adjective in the English vocabulary that can express the beauty and nobility of Yunjin..."

"It is said that the machine that makes Yunjin brocade is composed of tens of thousands of parts. A Chinese official told me that Yunjin brocade was an ancient emperor named Liu Yu. The Northern Expedition destroyed a country called Qin, and thousands of craftsmen were captured from Chang'an. These craftsmen integrated the textile skills of Han, Wei, Jin, and many grassland peoples (Sixteen Kingdoms). After thousands of years of improvement, this beautiful textile was finally born."

"I was fortunate enough to spend silver to make a piece of brocade clothing. The moment I put it on, I felt nobler than the emperors and kings of Europe..."