After feeling that the interest of the delegates in the meeting below was aroused, Zhu Youzhen struck the gavel again, stopping the merchants and pirates from continuing to play.

"What's in it for you to keep the price of raw silk down? According to my understanding, the raw silk of the Ming Dynasty is now mainly reeled by farmers themselves, and then foreign merchants buy it through local Chinese.

The people in these places are all people who are attached to the local gentry and wealthy families, do you plan to join forces with these people to control the raw silk market of the Ming Dynasty? ”

"Your Majesty, is there anything wrong with this? By cooperating with people in these places, we can not only lower the price of raw silk, but also establish a raw silk market as soon as possible with their familiar local connections. An imperial merchant asked with some confusion.

"The purpose of establishing the raw silk market was to gain control over the sale of raw silk overseas. As long as we control more than 9% of the annual raw silk production of the Ming Dynasty, we can determine the pricing power of raw silk.

Not only the price of raw silk sold overseas, but also the price of raw silk in China can be pushed up to the level of more than 100 taels per quintal. Zhu Youzhen tried to continue to stir up the emotions of these businessmen.

However, for Zhu Youzhen's statement, except for some pirates who did not know much about trade, most of the merchants did not think so.

Xu Xinsu advised: "Your Majesty, if the price of raw silk is high, the price of silk will inevitably rise, but the number of wealthy households in the Ming Dynasty has not increased, and the number of silk sales will inevitably fall."

If the number of silk sales falls, the weavers will inevitably reduce the amount of raw silk they buy, and in the end, won't they smash the raw silk on our own hands? ”

Seeing that Xu Xinsu's statement was supported by most people, Zhu Youzhen did not feel discouraged, he just recalled the information he had consulted in the past few days, and continued.

"However, I have read the "Yongbu Sketches" written by Zhu Guozhen, the former secretary of the ministry, and said: Husi is only seven miles better, and there must be one more per two than the usual price. It can be seen that the merchants of the Ming Dynasty are not unacceptable to the increase in the price of raw silk? ”

Since participating in the meeting, Lin Guangtai, a businessman who has been silent, was infected by this free-flowing form of the meeting, he looked at the others with an unknown expression, and finally said hesitantly.

"Your Majesty and you probably don't know anything about the origin of these seven miles. The villain has relatives in Huzhou, but he knows something about these seven miles.

The reason why this seven-mile silk is more expensive than ordinary silk is mainly because its silk has eight characteristics of "fine, round, even, firm, white, clean, flexible and tough".

It is precisely because of the good quality of Qili silk that it can be more expensive than ordinary soil silk, and it is in short supply. ”

Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but say: "In other words, as long as the quality of raw silk is good, in fact, businessmen don't mind the increase in the price of raw silk, do they?" ”

Lin Guangtai thought for a while and said cautiously: "What Your Majesty said is good, but the reason why Qili Silk is better than ordinary earth silk:

First, it is because there is a kind of dense seed called 'lotus heart seed' cultivated in this place, which is named because the silkworm cocoons produced are as small as lotus seeds. The use of this silk is especially suitable for reeling high-quality mulberry silk.

The second is that the people of this place have been raising silkworms for generations to reel silk, so the villagers have superb silk reeling technology, and the three-thread pedal silk car used in silk reeling can make the reeled silk: rich in tensile force, soft silk body, white color and other advantages.

The third is the use of water for silk reeling, and there has always been a saying that 'mountains and rivers are not as good as river water, and stopping water is not as good as flowing water'. Qili Village is close to Taihu Lake, the snow swings, the Pearl Bay passes by the side of the village, its water is very clear, take the reeling silk, the luster is lovely.

However, the local large households have always strictly adhered to the silkworm species and not passed it on, and the silk reeling technology of the people in other places is not up to par, even if the geographical conditions are similar to Qili Village, they cannot produce raw silk that can be compared with Qili Village. ”

Lin Guangtai's statement made the enthusiasm of the businessmen at the venue fade slightly, but with the high profits of overseas trade, they did not feel that it was unprofitable to control the Daming raw silk market.

The difference between them and Chongzhen now is that these merchants only want to use the power of the local gentry to control the sales market of raw silk in their hands, so as to monopolize the raw silk trade in overseas trade. For the domestic raw silk market in Daming, they did not pay attention to it.

Chongzhen, on the other hand, wanted to bypass the intermediary businessmen of the local gentry and deal directly with the farmers. Establish a complete raw silk production and sales network from source to sales.

According to the ideas of these merchants, the raw silk market they established was still a loose market in the nature of intermediary merchants, and the source of raw silk was still controlled by the Chinese people in various places.

This market can not fully obtain the pricing power of raw silk in the Ming Dynasty, as long as the price fluctuations are too large, farmers and merchants around the country, can completely bypass the market, private transactions.

After listening to Lin Guangtai's introduction, Zhu Youzhen put forward a new idea for improving the raw silk market.

"This representative Lin gave a very detailed introduction to raw silk, and I benefited a lot. From this representative's introduction, I know that the quality of raw silk in my Ming Dynasty varies from place to place, so the price is also different.

However, the quality of the raw silk in this Qili Village is undoubtedly to show that the raw silk in other parts of my Ming Dynasty is not without the possibility of improving the quality.

As long as the best breeds are selected, and then the silk reeling masters are hired to train the households in various places..."Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but pause when he said this, he paused, and then changed his words.

"Why don't we set up a silk reeling factory near Taihu Lake, buy cocoons from farmers, sort them according to grades, and then reel them with a unified standard of machines and technically trained workers? In this way, the quality of raw silk is not only guaranteed, but the source and quantity of raw silk do not have to be controlled by those who are in it. ”

Zhu Youzhen's idea immediately won the support of Lin Guangtai and other imperial merchants, compared with overseas trade with huge risks and profits, by improving the quality of raw silk, to increase the price of raw silk, undoubtedly made these merchants feel more down-to-earth.

The leaders of the Eighteen Zhi preferred the quick-acting raw silk market, which only needed to select the address and negotiate the price with the Chinese people in various places.

However, I am not very interested in the time-consuming industry of cultivating silkworm seeds, setting up factories, manufacturing machines, and training silk reeling workers.

For Lin Guangtai and other imperial merchants, it seems a bit risky for them, who have not personally experienced overseas trade, to invest a huge amount of money to build a raw silk market at once.

Zheng Zhilong, Xu Xinsu and others have always had doubts about the price of raw silk in Japan and Manila. And they are worried that neither Japan nor Manila is a fertile place.

For a long time, it was Ming merchants who shipped goods out and silver from Japan and Manila as a kind of trade back and forth.

Can Japan and Manila really have so much silver that they can't spend it? If all of a sudden, there was no silver in these two places, wouldn't the raw silk market they had built be smashed in their hands?

You must know that the annual silver output of the Ming Dynasty is about 200,000 taels, and the silver output of Japan and Manila is 3-4 times that of the Ming Dynasty every year. The merchants were worried about what would happen if the silver was mined in both places.

With this in mind, the Imperial Merchants and the Eighteen Zhi Pirates were divided into two opinions. The imperial merchants believed that a silk reeling factory should be built first, and then a unified raw silk market of the Ming Dynasty should be established on this basis.

The pirates led by Zheng Zhilong believed that a fast raw silk market should be established first, and as long as the flow of raw silk could be controlled, the profits of raw silk stolen by the Westerners would fall into the pockets of the Ming maritime merchants.

As for Xu Xinsu and other Zhangzhou maritime merchants, they were inclined to the idea of Eighteen Zhi, but based on the hostile relationship between the two sides, it was obviously not a good idea to support Eighteen Zhi.

Therefore, some maritime merchants chose to support the establishment of a silk reeling factory first, while Xu Xinsu and some others waited for Chongzhen's decision.

Zhu You finally made a decision after listening for a long time: "Since everyone disagrees, why don't you divide the raw silk market and the silk reeling factory into two separate parts, and then divide the share capital separately?" ”

After active discussion, the share capital of the raw silk market was set at 900,000 taels, while the share capital of the silk reeling factory was 150,000 taels.

But when it came to the issue of allocating shares, the delegates in the room again stirred up controversy. The largest number of imperial merchants wanted to buy shares according to their own wishes, but it was clear that this proposal was not feasible.

As for the shares in the raw silk market, a few people in the Eighteen Zhi and Zhangzhou maritime merchants thought that they should have an extra share.

After the dispute continued, it was proposed that the raw silk market and silk reeling factory be divided into several shares, and then each person would have one share.

However, this suggestion made the imperial merchants who were not very interested in the raw silk market object.

Zhu Youzhen then proposed again that it was better for everyone present to form a separate company, and then distribute the share capital according to the company. The amount of capital contribution can be adjusted within the company, which also reduces unnecessary disputes.

Chongzhen's proposal gave those imperial merchants room to choose, and also made Zheng Zhilong, Xu Xinsu and other leaders who originally had equal interests with other representatives, feel that there was an opportunity to expand their interests in the group, so everyone agreed with the emperor's opinion.

Eighteen Zhi was reorganized into the Quanzhou Chamber of Commerce, while Xu Xinsu and others established the Zhangzhou Chamber of Commerce, and the imperial merchants were divided into three groups, the Huizhou Chamber of Commerce, the Southern Anhui Chamber of Commerce, and the Daming Chamber of Commerce representing the court.

In the next share capital of the raw silk market, the Quanzhou Chamber of Commerce accounted for 3 and a half, the Zhangzhou Chamber of Commerce 3 percent, the Huizhou Chamber of Commerce and the Southern Anhui Chamber of Commerce added up to only half of the total, and the Daming Chamber of Commerce accounted for 3 percent.

In the process of discussing the share capital, Zhu Youzhen believed that the establishment of the raw silk market would require his own support in many places in the future, so he should be given 100,000 taels of silver in dry shares.

Zheng Zhilong, Xu Xinsu and other pirate merchants were shocked by Chongzhen's words, but they turned to think that this was better than the emperor's blackmail under various names afterwards, and finally acquiesced to Chongzhen's statement.