"Master" smiled and said: "At the beginning of the emperor's reign, it is inevitable that there will be some whimsical ideas, what is feasible will be done, and what is not feasible will be slowed down. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Prince Xuan's "whimsical ideas" four words, euphemistically stated, he also does not take the implementation of sericulture in Zhili as a matter of course, however, "what is feasible will be done, and what is not feasible will be slowed down", but the tone is a little ambiguous, Zeng Guofan replied "yes", still muttering in his heart.

Seeing Zeng Guofan's expression, he still couldn't seem relieved, Guan Zhuofan said: "This is the way it came out - this is the enthronement ceremony, the emperor used the imperial robe, and it cost a lot of money, and told me, if you take materials nearby, wouldn't you be able to save some costs?" -- Di Weng knows, the royal robes and clothes are basically Jiangnan weaving messengers. ”

"Oh......"

"I said," Guan Zhuofan said, "Zhili may not be suitable for growing mulberry and silkworms, perhaps, oranges born in Huainan are oranges, and those born in Huaibei are oranges." However, I didn't stay in Jiangnan for a long time, and I didn't dare to say it to death, so I said to the emperor that after the enthronement ceremony, Zeng Guofan would see His Majesty, and he would stay in Jiangnan for a long time, and he must know more about the situation. ”

"Oh......"

Zeng Guofan groaned for a moment, bowed his head slightly, "Today...... Frugality and virtue are respectable. ”

An idea came to my heart: does "Shangtou" have the meaning of cutting the three weaving yamen in the south of the Yangtze River?

"Yes!" Guan Zhuofan said, "Although the emperor is young; In addition, to tell the truth, I don't read much, but, 'a porridge and a meal, when thinking about where it comes from; Half a thread and half a thread, the constant thought of material resources is difficult', but the thought is here. ”

"Holy tomorrow, the blessing of the community, the blessing of the subjects."

Guan Zhuofan smiled slightly, "Not bad." ”

After a pause, "However, the emperor also said that although the cost of these court robes and dragon robes is not expensive, the work is not bad, compared with the court robes and dragon robes used by Emperor Mu Zongyi, the materials and embroidery are obviously much better." ”

Zeng Guofan thought to himself, this is not unusual, when Mu Zong practiced Zuo, Jiangnan beacons were everywhere, Jiangning, Suzhou, Hangzhou three weaving, Jinling, Suzhou was in the hands of Changmao, Jiangnan weaving three to two; The remaining Hangzhou, which has been besieged by Changmao for a long time, is precarious, and has long lost the ability to "worship in the inner court". Jiangnan three weaving is all wasted in the soldiers, Mu Zong's royal robe, dragon robe, not to mention the embroidery, only the use of materials, not "nearby materials" can not be obtained, the use of must be the internal affairs of the storage of Chen silk, naturally can not be compared with the new silk of the year.

However, he is a person who adheres to the principle of "ten thousand words are better than one silence", and when he wants to think about it, he doesn't say anything.

"I said," Guan Zhuofan continued, "At the time of Emperor Mu Zongyi, we were still fighting, and everything was simple, which was not much compared to now; At this time, there was a funny person next to him, saying, according to him, the emperor's court robe, don't say that Emperor Mu Zongyi's can't be compared, even compared to Emperor Wen Zongxian's, it seems to be slightly better. ”

This "funny" is naturally an elderly eunuch, but what Prince Xuan said may not be his original words - the eunuch called Tongzhi and Xianfeng Emperors, and he would not shout "Emperor Mu Zongyi" and "Emperor Wen Zongxian" or anything.

Don't ignore him, the key is that when Wenzong ascended the throne, Hong Yang had not rebelled, and the three weavings in Jiangnan were all fine, "compared to Emperor Wenzongxian's, it seems to be slightly better", what's going on?

"I asked him," said Kwan Zhuofan, "how could he be a little better?" Better materials? Or is it better to embroider? He said it was the material that was better—obviously, smoother, softer, smoother, tougher; He added that the four deacons had said that they had never seen such a fine silk in their minds for so many years. ”

After a pause, "I originally thought it was the relationship between the time of day - is this year's silkworm breeding particularly good?" However, since the four deacons said 'so many years,' it should be a matter of day—there must be another reason. Later, I asked someone to check, and sure enough, the silk used in the emperor's court robe and dragon robe came from the newly built silk reeling factory. ”

Zeng Guofan's heart jumped: Ah, it turned out to be waiting for me here!

As mentioned above, Zeng Guofan was ordered to enter Beijing and served as the "edict official" of the enthronement ceremony, but for some special reasons, he was reluctant to go through this experience.

In the past year, especially in the second half of the year, Zeng Guofan received many letters from the old Liangjiang, and many people had no complaints about the new-style silk reeling factory, some of them spoke more tactfully, referring to the new-style silk reeling factory as "competing with the people for profit", and some people said it more fervently, denouncing the new-style silk reeling factory for "forcing the people to hang upside down." Among them, the most alarmist even said something like "I am afraid that there will be something unbearable in the long run."

These letters were one of the "special reasons" why Zeng Guofan was reluctant to enter Beijing at this time.

The new silk reeling factory appeared last year, at the beginning, although the government vigorously advocated, the silk industry association also drummed accordingly, but most of the small and medium-sized silk merchants, or take a wait-and-see attitude, only a few of the largest silk merchants, jointly set up two silk reeling factories, one is called "Shichanglong", one is called "Jichanglun", known as "Erchang".

As soon as "Erchang" was put into production, the small and medium-sized silk merchants who watched and watched, as well as the vast number of silkworm raisers and silk reelers, immediately realized that the situation was wrong.

The silk reeled by the steam silk reeling machine is extremely smooth, snow-white and dazzling, and the silk reeled by the earth reeling car is yellow and hairy compared with one, as if the fire girl stood in front of everyone's young lady, even if she is blind, she can also see which is better? Even if you are a fool, you know, which one to choose?

People in Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province raise silkworms and reel silk, which is extremely common, and generally produce and sell their own silkworms - they raise silkworms by themselves, reel silk by themselves, and then sell them to silk shops. In the countryside, almost every family has a reeling car, and the women in the family, regardless of the old and the young, are all engaged in this business. Over the course of a year, the succession of three meals, the wedding and the end of the pension are all related to this reeling car.

With the steam silk reeling machine, this earthen reeling car is equivalent to being scrapped, and the livelihood of the family does not know where it comes from?

Of course, you can't sell silk, you can also sell cocoons, steam silk reeling machine can only reel silk, can not be cocooned, in fact, there are also cocoons that specialize in the purchase of silkworm cocoons, but the purchase price of cocoons has always been very fierce, and it is difficult to fill the stomach by selling cocoons alone.

In addition, the raw silk produced by the new silk reeling factory can be put on the loom after getting off the silk reeling machine - the cocoon goes in at this end, the silk end comes out, and then it can be used to weave silk. However, the silk reeled by the earthen reeling car cannot be directly woven into the machine. First of all, you have to "twist the silk", "beat the silk", then enter the dyeing workshop to practice dyeing, and then twist the "weft" into "warp silk", and there are "warp dropping", "warp pulling" and so on, and finally can you go to the loom - this pile of processes, and I don't know how many workers are fed? The new reeling car has come out, not only the silkworm breeders, but even the rice bowls of this class of workers are all going to be broken!

Finally, there are small and medium-sized silk merchants.

The main role of small and medium-sized silk merchants is to collect silk from silkworm farmers for large silk merchants, which is the role of secondary wholesalers today. The vast number of small and medium-sized silk merchants either do not eat this bowl of silk rice, or change careers to collect cocoons, but the profits of the cocoon line are not as good as the silk line, as mentioned above, the cocoon line collects cocoons from silkworm farmers, and the price is very fierce - this is actually a last resort, because the price of the silk line is also very fierce.

Whether the profit margin is high or not, let's not talk about it, the key is that the original cocoon line, each with its own wharf, did not leave much space for latecomers, a large number of silk lines turned into cocoon lines, the market is so big, where can it be squeezed?

So put aside the big silk merchants, collect the silk by yourself, and sell it yourself?

It's simply impossible.

First, whether it is domestic or export, the way is in the hands of the big silk merchants, especially the "sales of foreign villages" -- that is, the export of raw silk, which has a very high monopoly, and basically a few big silk merchants headed by Hu Xueyan dominate it, and no one else can intervene at all.

Second, even if you can get your hands in, your silk is yellow and hairy, and other people's silk is white and smooth, what do you use to compete with others?

So, listening to the roar of the machines of "Erchang" - "Shichanglong" and "Jichanglun", the silk industry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, up and down, was frightened and panicked.

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