Ginning, carding, and spinning, this is the cotton processing process that Xu Ping tried out, which is actually roughly the same as the process of machine spinning in his previous life. www.biquge.info In Xu Ping's impression, it was used to play loose old cotton wool when making quilts, but it was excluded. As for the weaving cotton cloth in Yazhou, squatting on the ground to loosen the cotton little by little, and then using a small spinning wheel to spin it into yarn, Xu Ping felt that the efficiency was too slow and extremely tiring. He remembered that in his previous life, what TV show he watched, a sketch actor was carrying a big bow and playing cotton, and he didn't need to squat on the ground.

Standing up and hanging the bow around your waist to play cotton can greatly reduce the labor intensity. For some reason, this seemingly simple reform has never been completed in China's history. Until the late Qing Dynasty, farmers were still squatting and playing cotton, which was a very tiring work.

Including the two governors, none of the officials had ever seen how to deal with cotton, and listening to Xu Ping's explanation, they seemed to understand whether they understood or not. Occasionally asking, it's not boundary.

After spinning, it is weaving, which is no different from the craftsmanship of silk and linen, and the eyes of the officials could not help but shine, and at last they reached the place where they understood, and the atmosphere suddenly became lively.

The loom was too large to be placed here, but a few horses of woven cloth were placed.

Li Shu lay on it and looked at it for a while before saying, "This cloth is wide, it's very rare!" It's just that the pattern on it is too simple, and it's not a good color, but unfortunately—"

As he spoke, he shook his head repeatedly.

How many years has China's silk textile industry been developed, and the technology has already matured, how can the quality of the cloth woven by Xu Ping with the machine be compared? The large jacquard loom is a very complex machine, Xu Ping could not make it, and a simple loom could only weave simple patterns. In this era, the weaving masters used the four-heald loom, and the slightly worse ones were also three-heald, and only those stupid foolish women who did not make a device used one heald and two healds to weave simple patterns.

Not to mention others, Lin Suniang used to be able to use a six-heave loom at home, and the silk woven was quite beautiful. Xu Ping estimated that he had spent a lifetime of hard work to make the cloth woven by the machine, which was far less exquisite than Lin Suniang's hand-weaving. I heard that there are skilled women who can use more than 100 threads, and it takes a few months to weave a piece of silk, and such a horse can be sold for dozens of dollars.

The cloth woven by Xu Ping here is a commodity, and those silks are works of art, which cannot be compared at all.

After Li Shu finished speaking, Li Shi also leaned in to look at the reading glasses with his hand, and couldn't help sighing: "Yes, it's a pity that this cloth is too simple, I'm afraid it won't be able to sell for a good price." In the capital, Jibei cloth has always been expensive and rare, so it is not worth much to weave it in this way. Xu waits, you should hire some clever women to weave the cloth more beautifully. ”

Everybody else means the same thing. I just saw so many complicated things, and I thought that something ingenious would come out, but I didn't think that in the end, it was such a simple cloth. It's like hearing someone say how beautiful the peacock is, but I rushed over it, only to see an ugly ass. Disappointment is hard to tell.

Xu Ping said with a smile: "Xianggong, what I weave here is not the best fine cloth, but only used to make clothes to protect from the wind and keep warm." In the future, the three divisions will only weave such cloth, and if they need to be exquisite, they can be woven by the weaving institute. They don't know how many skilled craftsmen there, and they can weave any pattern. ”

Cai Qiqi said: "Why? The best cloth can be ten times the price of ordinary cloth! If it's just ordinary cloth, why do you need three divisions to weave? As long as it is woven by the village woman. ”

"Because, with the same manpower and material resources, I can weave a hundred and a thousand horses here! Sansi weaving cloth wants everyone in the world to have clothes to wear, not to weave those noble clothes. ”

Cai Qi and Li Shi looked at each other and smiled, but did not speak. No one takes Xu Ping's words seriously, why does everyone in the world have clothes to wear? Is it hard? As long as the peasant women are not lazy, and the mulberry linen in the field is woven into cloth, they can naturally have clothes to wear. Let's see, isn't it because Xu Ping said that cotton can become the cane sugar of the Central Plains and create huge wealth for the imperial court. To create wealth, the more expensive things you naturally make, the better.

After spending so much effort, he finally weaved this kind of cloth, and he couldn't help but be slightly disappointed in Xu Ping.

Xu Ping didn't know how to explain to others, he wasn't just here to make money, but to produce a real commodity that affected everyone in the whole society. The high-ranking officials have already departed from the stage of demanding food and clothing, and can naturally ask how beautiful and rare the patterns on the fabric are. But more people in this world are still just looking for a piece of clothing to cover their bodies when it's cold.

If it can't be explained, then why bother? There are many things that you decide to do, and you are destined to move forward alone in this world. No matter how disappointed they were, no one could stop Xu Ping. Facts are the most fair referees, although cold, but always clearly judge the right and wrong of things, and the history will eventually give answers based on the facts.

After reading it, Cai Qi made a summary: "Although the final woven cloth and clothes are not satisfactory, they are still much stronger than ramie." If it is really as Xu Beizhi said, the price is about the same as ramie, it is a great source of wealth for the imperial court. If an acre of cotton is woven with much more cloth than ramie, Xu Zhizhi is a great achievement! ”

Everyone nodded yes.

Xu Ping smiled and didn't say anything. How can ramie compare to cotton? In addition to picking, cotton is particularly suitable for large-scale machine production, which is far from being comparable to silk and linen.

It was not until a year or two later, when the cotton cloth produced by the Third Division was piled up on the wharves, and the shops of the Third Division were sold to all parts of the Central Plains, and it was no longer profitable to collect the fabric from the peasants as tribute, and these people would really understand what kind of value the crop represented.

And once the fabric is not used as a tribute, it will lead to the reform of the entire fiscal system. At that time, the policy of parallel money and silk can no longer continue, and the monetization of various commodities is inevitable. On that day, it will be time for the Sanji shopping coupons to be converted into coins, and organizations such as banks will appear.

The important thing about cotton cloth is not how much money it can make, but how much it will turn the weaving from farming into a commodity, thus destroying the small peasant economy. Once fabrics are once and for all commodity, there will be a major transformation in rural production.

As for whether these cotton cloths are beautifully woven or not, whether they look good or not, is it important? It doesn't matter at all. If you want a beautiful fabric, you can buy cotton yarn and find a skilled craftsman to weave it.

Why didn't cotton become a real commodity in history? At that time, cotton varieties were not suitable for large-scale machine weaving, which was one of the reasons, but more importantly because of China's well-established natural economic system. The government simply levied cotton cloth as a substitute for silk and linen as a tribute. It can be collected from the peasants for free, why should the government organize manpower to make it by itself? However, private capital engaged in the textile industry, no matter how prosperous it develops, is far from being comparable with the amount collected by the government, and it is not at all in the same order of magnitude.

With the huge amount of fabric in its hands, the government could easily destroy any private textile industry. With this mountain on it, the textile industry will not develop in any way. No matter how efficient the factories are, they cannot compare with the scale that the bureaucrats can collect from the peasants by random means, and there is absolutely no room for price wars, scale wars, and various market means.

There is cotton, a crop with commodity potential, and there is also a monster like Sansi. Only the three divisions can allow capital to turn cotton into a commodity, and all the resistance of the government does not exist here.

At the local level, the three divisions represent the political power, and the production and sale of cotton cloth can be unimpeded. The three divisions can use administrative means to directly eliminate resistance, and even directly eliminate competitors.

If the three divisions abolished the tribute of silk and linen and replaced it with other goods, the competitiveness of silk and linen would soon disappear, and cotton cloth would quickly occupy the market. At that time, the power of cotton was known.

Now, the third division is still Xu Ping's final say. Kou Ying withstood the pressure above, even the political affairs hall couldn't easily intervene, and Xu Ping could act according to his own ideas below.

When Ding Wei had just fallen, even a pavilion official who had not been sent could scold Kou Yang as a "lost dog", and even write poems to satirize him, which was widely disseminated. Who would dare to do that now?

Kou Ying knew where all this came from, and he had only one task in the Third Division, which was to withstand all kinds of pressure in the court for Xu Ping. With the support of Emperor Zhao Zhen, no one can do anything to him.

Xu Ping is grateful for at least one thing, in his hands, the independence of the three divisions is much stronger. Although it is still a subordinate department of the Political Affairs Hall, Zai Zhi can still directly intervene in the personnel arrangements of the three divisions, but he can already make his own decisions about daily affairs. For Xu Ping, that's enough.

What they do is best understood by the ruling officials, and it doesn't matter if they don't understand. One day, the truth will make those officials who do not understand themselves have to understand.

After seeing everything, we went to the yard. Zhuang Ke had already set up the tables and chairs and served refreshments.

There is no lunch, and in order to ensure the energy of the afternoon, it is always necessary to eat something to fill the stomach. In the past, it was customary to have some fruits, accompanied by tea soup. Xu Ping drinks loose tea, only working the soup, no longer the usual longan white fungus and the like, but replaced with eggs, meat balls and the like, which is more satisfying.

In the afternoon, the cotton is picked, and tomorrow the whole machine will be moving, and that is the main event. (To be continued.) )