Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

How much leisure time do you have? Yichuan tobacco, the city is full of wind and rain, and plums are yellow and rainy.

Before Zhu Guoxiang left Yangzhou, the rainy season had arrived.

Meiyu is quite romantic, unless you have rheumatism.

Shen Yourong and the other two concubines were silently enduring the pain of rheumatism. But they were soon discovered by Zhu Guoxiang, who had no choice but to send guards to send them back north first, and then meet up in the south after the rainy season.

When Shen Yourong was in the north, rheumatism was never serious and he didn't even take it seriously. But when I arrived in Yangzhou, I was hit by the rainy season and was so painful that I tossed and turned all night long and couldn't sleep.

Sometimes it rains sometimes.

Zhu Guoxiang sat in the pavilion, facing the breeze and looking around at the scenery. The temple on the mountain, the city at the foot of the mountain, and the looming canal were all shrouded in hazy mist and rain.

It feels so comfortable, as if I am in a landscape painting.

When the rain stops, the world becomes clearer. Zhu Guoxiang became more and more interested. He stepped on the slippery muddy mountain road and ran down the mountain to imitate Su Shi's drunken boating.

He went down the mountain with one foot deep and one foot shallow. He almost fell down several times, which shocked the people accompanying him.

However, the Supreme Emperor refused to let others help him and insisted on walking slowly with a stick.

After being cautious for two lifetimes, Zhu Guoxiang rarely acted willfully.

After staying in Yangzhou until the rainy season, the team finally set off to continue south.

There was a sudden flood in the Yangtze River, and everyone stayed in Guazhou Town for another half month. After crossing the river from Guazhou, Zhu Guoxiang stayed in Runzhou (Zhenjiang) City and continued southward after finding out that the floods this year were not serious.

Traveling all the way to Suzhou, there were many textile workshops in the towns along the way. The largest ones employed hundreds of workers. This discovery made Zhu Guoxiang very happy.

He met with officials in Suzhou and asked about the specific situation in Jiangnan.

Chen Zaiting, the prefect of Suzhou, was a native of Renshou, Sichuan. He told Zhu Guoxiang: "The number of people converting rice fields into cotton fields has increased in recent years as the court relaxed restrictions. Even if the taxes on cotton fields are heavier, farmers' income from cotton cultivation has also been reduced. It’s at least 20-30% higher than growing rice. Now the tax on cotton has been reduced. Just like the tax on rice, farmers can earn more by growing cotton.”

Zhu Guoxiang was a professional and nodded in approval: "It is best to have consistent taxes on cotton and rice. The court cannot use taxes to disrupt farming."

If the taxes on cotton and rice were different, not only would the government's tax collection be confused, but farmers would also be confused about farming.

Different areas and different soils should be cultivated according to local conditions.

If you are reluctant to fertilize or have poor soil fertility, the best farming method is two cotton and one rice. That is, planting cotton for two years, planting rice for one year, and planting cotton for another two years... In this alternating cycle, only manure and soybean meal are applied when planting rice, which not only cultivates soil fertility but also reduces pests and diseases.

If you are willing to apply more fertilizer, or if you have extremely fertile farmland, you can use three cotton and one rice.

There are also farmers who like to plant one cotton and one rice, or even rotate wheat or rapeseed.

With such a complicated planting method, if the court imposed heavy taxes on cotton fields, it would inevitably disrupt farmers' farming plans.

One size fits all, no alternative.

Zhu Guoxiang asked again: "If a large number of cotton plants are planted, can food be guaranteed?"

Chen Zaiting said: "In the area around Dongting Lake, rice production has increased year by year, which can fill the food gap in the south of the Yangtze River. Moreover, more food has been shipped from overseas in recent years."

In the past, sea trade was not so complicated, and merchants looked down upon the small profits from buying and selling grain.

But now the competition in maritime trade is fierce, and more and more maritime merchants are willing to traffic grain. Although the profit is not that much, as long as the grain harvest season is staggered and transported to the coastal provinces for sale, it is a sure profit.

This even includes Taiwan!

Historically, Taiwan was greatly developed in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, and there was simply not enough food to eat. The Qing government had strict control over Taiwan, but it still could not stop the export of Taiwanese grain, and there were even records of it being smuggled to Tianjin and sold.

It is completely nonsense that maritime water transportation is risky.

Maritime merchants dare to smuggle Taiwanese rice to Tianjin. If there is not enough profit, will they be willing? This is smuggling!

Today in Taiwan (including the Penghu Islands), the registered population has increased to more than 50,000. The main population is the Dan people who migrated from Fujian and their descendants. There are also thousands of naturalized indigenous people in Taipei.

King Liuqiu (the chief of an indigenous tribe in Taipei) was very sensible. He first surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and then requested that the country's title be removed. In exchange, Emperor Zhu made him a marquis, gave him a large amount of cloth and other goods, and obtained a land deed to tens of thousands of acres of land.

Induced by the Taiwanese magistrate, the chief even gave up his land and moved his family to live in Kaifeng City. Emperor Zhu also gave a Kaifeng mansion, two Kaifeng shops, and 800 acres of land in the outer suburbs of Kaifeng.

Such preferential treatment is intended to naturalize Taipei's indigenous people and transform them into homesteaders.

Now, Taiwan already has two counties.

One county is located in the Penghu and Taichung areas and is dominated by immigrants from mainland China.

A county in the Taipei, Taoyuan, and Keelung areas is dominated by naturalized indigenous people and gold diggers who stayed behind.

After chatting about food security issues for a while, Zhu Guoxiang added: "I traveled all the way from Runzhou and found that there are many large and small textile factories, and there must be many in Huzhou and Hangzhou. The silk and cotton from Jiangnan alone can Supplied to those factories?”

Chen Zaiting replied: "Lu cotton and Chu cotton will also be transported and sold to Jiangnan."

It is normal for Chu cotton to be transported to Jiangnan and sold, because Jiangnan has a more complete textile industry system.

But what is the situation of the Shandong cotton transport to the south?

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Shandong's silk and linen weaving industry was very developed, and relevant practitioners could be converted into cotton weaving.

Zhu Guoxiang didn't know much about textiles and was quite curious about it.

Chen Zaiting replied: "With the same quality of cotton, the cotton cloth woven in Jiangnan is generally of better quality than that produced in Shandong."

Why is it better?

Chen Zaiting couldn't understand either.

Other officials present were also unable to answer.

So they quickly found a cotton spinning farmer.

The cotton spinning farm owner's surname was Hu. He was very excited to see the Emperor and explained in detail: "It may be a climate problem. The quality of cotton along the coast of Shandong is better than that of cotton in the interior of Shandong. There are a lot of cotton grown in the counties around Jinan. But when spinning and weaving in those prefectures and counties, the cotton yarn is not strong enough, has a lot of short lint, a lot of fly, a lot of broken ends, uneven thickness, and a lot of neps, and it spins very slowly.”

After finishing speaking, he added: "This situation becomes more obvious the farther away from the seaside, and it becomes more obvious in winter. Since the rise of Jiangnan cotton cloth, it has steadily suppressed Shandong cotton cloth. Shandong cotton cloth cannot be sold at high prices, so there are Cotton merchants transport Shandong cotton to the south of the Yangtze River for sale, and then transport the Jiangnan cotton cloth back to the north for sale. "

After listening to the cotton spinning farm owner's account, Zhu Guoxiang probably guessed that it was related to the dry and cold air.

If Shandong's cotton textile industry wants to develop, relevant technical problems must be solved, otherwise Shandong will only become a raw material supplier for Jiangnan's cotton textile industry. Even if the technical difficulties are overcome, the cost will still be higher than here in Jiangnan due to the additional textile processes.

What's more, Jiangnan also has the advantage of going overseas. Cotton cloth is more convenient for export, and Shandong cannot compete.

Of course, at this stage, Daming cotton is still mainly sold domestically, and there is still a large blank market in China.

When the domestic market becomes saturated in the future, cotton exports will become more competitive. Cotton farmers, cotton merchants, cloth merchants, and maritime chambers of commerce formed a community of interests and were eager to open up more overseas markets.

If overseas markets also become saturated, more tactics will be needed. For example, destroy the cotton textile industry in various Indian states and seize the Indian cotton cloth market.

It’s not just about grabbing the Indian local market.

India's cotton textile industry is extremely developed, and its cotton cloth is exported to East Africa, West Asia, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia... Once the Indian cotton textile industry is wiped out, Ming Dynasty cotton cloth will have a broader dumping ground.

Historically, the Mughal dynasty was aggressive in military affairs. In order to extract war funds, they destroyed half of the Indian cotton textile industry. The remaining half was killed by the British through colonial means, rather than relying on industrial efficiency to steal the market!

The next day, the Supreme Emperor went to inspect Hu's textile factory.

This textile factory has more than 300 weavers, all of whom are women.

The machine is a pedal loom.

The owner of Hu's textile factory said: "At first, cotton weaving in Shandong was modified using linen and silk looms. But cotton yarn spinning is different, and the old methods are often not applicable. Qiongzhou, Nanyang, India and other places Weaving cotton cloth, the Holy Emperor sent people to various countries to inquire about it, and finally the technical officer of the Ministry of Industry modified the existing machinery. "

Although the Indian cotton textile industry is extremely developed, their looms are really backward.

Indians use waist looms and must sit on the ground to weave. It is very expensive, inefficient, and cannot perform complex jacquard and other processes.

Historically, it was Huang Daopo who learned the technology from Hainan and then improved various types of machinery.

The owner of Hu's farm continued: "After the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry made improvements, the craftsmen from Shandong made further improvements, and the craftsmen from Jiangnan continued to improve, and finally they made what you see now."

Zhu Guoxiang observed carefully and found that this kind of loom was relatively primitive.

Of course, what Zhu Guoxiang sees as primitive is actually India, where the cotton textile industry has developed for thousands of years!

People in India are very strange. They like to squat or sit on the ground whenever they do anything. Their cotton looms had appeared as early as BC, but they had always sat on the ground to weave cloth, and there was no breakthrough until the industrial age.

Don't you feel tired?

Just like when cutting vegetables, you can stand and put a cutting board on the table, which saves time, effort and is hygienic. The traditional way of cutting vegetables in India is to sit on the ground and slowly cut with a knife, or you can find something to use as a cushion to cut, or simply use your palms as a cutting board.

"You don't spin here?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Hu's factory owner said: "There are special spinning fields, and ordinary people buy cotton yarn from the spinning fields to make fabrics. There are also some cotton farmers who spin yarn at their own homes and then sell it to ordinary people's weaving fields."

Zhu Guoxiang nodded: "That's fine. Everyone performs their duties and can improve work efficiency."

The owner of Hu's factory said: "Before spinning, you have to ginning and elasticizing cotton. At first, there was no truck, so you had to peel off the seeds by hand. Later, the craftsman invented the hand-operated cotton gin, and Shandong craftsmen improved it with a hand-operated cotton gin and a foot. Later, Jiangnan craftsmen improved it into a churning machine. "

In this way of development, no one is smarter than anyone else.

Whether it was a cotton gin or a cotton loom, the imperial court first came forward to inquire about the technology of various countries through maritime trade, and then gathered a group of craftsmen from the Ministry of Industry to improve it. At that time, Shandong's cotton textile industry was the most prosperous. In the actual production process, Shandong craftsmen further improved the industrial technology.

Later, the cotton textile center moved to Jiangnan. Shandong was suppressed and restricted by climatic conditions, so Jiangnan craftsmen continued to improve in production activities.

Every improvement doubles the textile efficiency!

It can even be improved several times at a time.

Combined with a steam engine?

Sorry, the existing textile technology is not suitable for the use of steam engines.

Not even worthy of using hydraulic machinery.

Water-powered linen spinning machines have gradually become popular, causing the price of linen to continue to fall. The linen that was rare in the past in Goryeo was sold cheaply by Ming Dynasty merchants. Now Goryeo has become a province of Korea, and ordinary people there no longer have to go bareback.

But cotton fibers are too short, and water-spun cotton yarn is easy to break, not to mention spinning cotton yarn with a steam engine.

First, we need to break through the technical difficulties of spinning, and second, we need to cultivate higher-quality long-staple cotton.

Zhu Guoxiang said to the owner of the Hu factory: "You merchants who spin and weave cloth can offer rewards to let the craftsmen continue to improve. The "Ming Dynasty Law·Working Law" has promulgated the patent law. Once improved, the court will protect your interests."

"I have been trying to improve it." The owner of the Hu factory was actually complaining in his heart.

The patents related to cotton textiles have been in litigation for more than ten years. Although those craftsmen also made some money, they were exhausted by the lawsuit and even suffered personal threats.

Finally, the craftsmen sold their patents to big merchants, who then took on the lawsuits.

But even for big merchants, it was extremely difficult to sue across prefectures and counties, let alone across provinces.