There are many silk lines in Suzhou and Hangzhou, and they can be divided into many kinds according to channels and scales. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 INFO specializes in recruiting Guangdong merchants and carrying them to Shanghai to trade with Yi merchants, which is called Guangxing; The monopoly on rural silk is called the rural silk line; Those who collect scattered silkworm cocoons and raw silk to supply large silk rows are called zoning villages; Those who specialize in matchmaking silk shops and silkworm farmers in the countryside and extract intermediary fees are called small leaders.

The largest silk store in Suzhou is located in the most prosperous business district, Changmen, called "Su Ji Silk Store". Su Kee's owner, Su Mingkang, is also the president of the Silk Guild. At this moment, Su Mingkang was sitting in the store worried, and there were several people sitting next to him, all of whom were the owners of the silk shops in Suzhou.

According to Liu Quan, the silk industry is an industry that counts money lying down, and it is not money that can make Su Mingkang difficult, what makes him in a dilemma is a very big person, a powerful person holding a "ministry post", hoping to get a piece of the raw silk business in Suzhou, and this cup of soup is not small.

Someone cautiously asked: "He wants to buy and sell raw silk, why does he have to grab food from our bowls, he has his own post, just go to the countryside to collect it." ”

Su Mingkang shook his head: "This is obviously here to make money, we can ignore him, but offend the people behind him, do we have good fruit to eat?" ”

The person Su Mingkang said was named Chang Wei, and he was a scoundrel who did not learn or skill, but his godfather should not be underestimated, he was Chang Kun, the eunuch of Nanjing, and it was said that he also had a close relationship with Jiading Bo Zhou Kui. Not long ago, he came to Suzhou to visit the bosses of major silk stores, and said that he wanted to do raw silk trading in Suzhou.

As long as there is a "ministry post" issued by the household, theoretically anyone can do raw silk trading. But in fact, the purchase channels of raw silk are all controlled by the silk guild, the needle can not be inserted into the water and splashed in, the foreign households can not receive enough raw silk at all, how many foreign merchants who want to get a piece of the pie have been squeezed out, and finally can only be purchased at a high price according to the guild's pricing, and the guild can also enjoy the monopoly profits of Suzhou raw silk exclusively.

However, this Chang Wei did not play cards according to common sense, he directly approached the Silk Guild and bluntly proposed to buy raw silk from the major silk stores, and asked for the price to be reduced by two percent. If it were someone else, he would have been beaten out of the mess a long time ago, but there were two big Buddhas standing behind him, and a Nanjing town guard eunuch could not afford to offend, not to mention that there was a Jiading Bo in Jingshi.

The eunuchs of Nanjing Town, the Nanjing Garrison Lords, and the Shangshu of the Nanjing Military Department jointly manage the affairs of Nanjing, and their influence can cover the entire Nanzhili region, and Suzhou naturally cannot escape his Wuzhi Mountain. Jiading Bo Zhou Kui is even more difficult to mess with, he is a native of Suzhou, his daughter is the current queen, he was named Jiading Bo in Chongzhen for three years, and he was given the first in Suzhou Fengmen, the first royal relative of the dynasty, known for his arrogance and greed.

There are people behind the major silk shops in Suzhou, most of them are officials of Nanzhili, and there are also some Beijing officials, but they are not as big as the above two, one is the most powerful eunuch in Nanzhili, and the other is the biggest relative of the dynasty. The most terrible thing is that the civil officials also talk about some rules, eunuchs and relatives only recognize money in their eyes, so they won't tell you any rules, and whoever stands in his way is his enemy.

In the eyes of everyone, this is no different from Ming robbery, and some people are indignant: "This is completely like a locust sucking blood, sucking our blood and filling his stomach." ”

Su Mingkang sighed and said: "The most terrible thing is not this, the old man is afraid of the bad market, as soon as the mouth is opened, it will be difficult to pull back the original price, what should others do in the future." ”

The crowd shouted, "How can that be done?" ”

"Only if we talk to him again, either let him buy and sell at the price of our guild, or we will ship the goods at his price."

Someone immediately objected: "How many years have the old rules of the current market been followed, how can an outsider change it without authorization?" Where will the face of our guild go? ”

He spoke the hearts of the people, and everyone claimed yes. As soon as the price was changed, the guild would be slapped in the face, and its prestige would be gone, not to mention the vital interests of everyone present - ninety percent of Suzhou's raw silk exports were controlled by these people, and giving two profits was equivalent to a loss of three or four hundred thousand taels of silver every year.

Su Mingkang also felt aggrieved, the dignified Suzhou Silk Guild, could it be true that he wanted to bow to a scoundrel, change the price standard for decades, and bear huge losses?

The crowd did not discuss what came out, but it was getting late, so they had to disperse first. At this time, the front hall guy came to report that someone came to visit the master, Su Mingkang was in a bad mood and said: "As long as it is not an official master, I will not see it." ”

The guy hesitated and said, "He seems to claim to be the official of Sanpin......"

Su Mingkang was taken aback, the official body of Sanpin? The prefect of this province is only four grades, is this the governor or the governor? At that moment, he trotted all the way to the front hall with his robe.

The people who came were Xia Nan and Liu Quan and others, Xia Nan was sipping tea and looking at the surrounding environment.

Su Mingkang walked in with trepidation and asked respectfully, "Dare to ask which adult came to the shop?" ”

Xia Nan pointed to his nose slightly embarrassed and said, "It's contemptible." You don't have to be nervous, although I am an official of Sanpin, I am not an official of your Suzhou, but a general of the Qiongzhou battalion in Guangdong. ”

Su Mingkang was stunned for a while, and when he reacted, he almost scolded his mother. Nima, a military general, is still the place where the bird in Qiongzhou doesn't, and he almost didn't scare him half to death.

Su Mingkang adjusted his mentality, tidied up his slightly messy robe, sat down slowly on a chair in the middle of the front hall, and asked slowly, "It turned out to be a general, what are you doing?" There was no respect in his tone, and he didn't even politely ask the other party's last name.

It's no wonder that the grades of military generals in the late Ming Dynasty are not valuable, let alone in Jiangnan. The gentry class in the south of the Yangtze River has great energy, and the gentry with their hands and eyes can be seen everywhere, except for the Nanjing town guard eunuch and Jiading Bo behind Chang Wei who will make them jealous, the local parents and officials have to look at the face of the gentry, who will take a general in a remote place in their eyes.

Xia Nan didn't care, he smiled and took out a letter from Chen Zhongsheng, the prefect of Suzhou, and handed it to Su Mingkang: "The contemptible surname is Xia, although he is a military attaché, but he is also a businessman. ”

Su Mingkang took the envelope suspiciously, looked at the payment, and immediately sat up straight, it was actually Lord Chen, the official of the parents of the mansion.

After opening it and reading it, Lord Futai earnestly asked him to help this young man from Guangdong, and implied that the young man's network should not be underestimated, and behind him stood the governor of Guangdong and the governor of Shandong.