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Before the official dissolution of the Progressive Alliance, a pair of brothers in Minjun had turned against each other, and the reason for the hatred may be explained by the five words "The times are progressing????? One? Reading

A year after Chen Jian went to sea, many spinning mills were built in some of the tributaries and valleys of the upper Min River.

Finally, the word factory instead of workshop can be used, and it is not just a change of two words.

Hydraulic spinning machines, carding machines, cotton winch machines, drum machines, ginning machines, etc., the cotton spinning industry has ushered in the technological innovation of the handicraft industry and the great development with the development of overseas markets.

The price of cotton yarn skyrocketed due to the hand-drawn wide plain weave Bula Shuttle loom, and the rest of the factions of the Progressive League organized cooperatives and relied on Chen Jian's merciful low-interest loans, which gave the spinning craftsmen a brief spring.

But with the establishment of the new water-powered spinning mills, the small spinning craftsmen who had lived a good life for a few years fell into panic and poverty, and their meager capital was quietly wiped out by the big factories every day and every moment.

Speculators cooperated with these big millers, and a simple leverage manipulation on the futures exchange made those small producers who had been smiling for two or three years go bankrupt overnight and could not survive.

The cotton spinning industry is only one aspect, and perhaps this is just the process of history ruthlessly eliminating the petty bourgeoisie and eliminating individuality.

The new horse-drawn seeders and threshers used in the farming industry have made the original proletarians even more destitute and difficult to survive.

These agricultural workers are the lowest level of existence, and they work on the farms in exchange for their income to sustain themselves. However, with the sudden appearance of a large number of horse-drawn handmade machines, they no longer even have the last value of existence.

The entire Min County has fallen into a very strange situation. On the one hand, the increase in the number of immigrants caused by the development of the Great Wilderness City, maritime trade and the exploration of tropical islands led to the increase in the price of light and strong labor in Mincheng. On the other hand, in the vast farms and large land-owned estates, thousands of hired hands have lost their jobs, and what would have required twenty men to thresh in the autumn now requires only two horses and three.

The agricultural workers laughed at themselves that they were no match for a ploughing horse, and the basis for this self-deprecation turned out to be reality.

Two years after the voyage, three petitions and revolts broke out in Minxian County, where they rushed to the farms and smashed machines, slaughtered horses, and beat salesmen and salesmen.

These things have robbed them of their jobs, and they have gone from being able to feed themselves to living on handouts, not just starving, but also losing the last vestiges of human dignity: before they were entitled to mock those who needed handouts to live, and now they are in the same situation as those people??? Want?? Reading ·

It's not that they don't want to go to the city to find work, it's that the city simply can't accommodate so many laborers. It's a pathological, human-meddling development, where those who were supposed to die or starve are not dead, and new technologies are already spreading.

Those newly established spinning mills ushered in the myth of an industry, and a person who happened to be able to afford a complete set of machines spent two years building a second spinning mill.

The secret of his success was the use of cheaper labor. For example, women, for example, children. Women's labor is cheaper than men's, and in the case of hydroelectric plants, the use of machinery makes the difference between men and women even smaller.

Children, on the other hand, have more dexterous fingers and faster learning ability than adults, as well as a cheaper price. A spinner, who has been trained since childhood, is obviously more efficient than those who used to work on farms with rough fingers, and the lower the cost is the cheaper if they are paid the same wage.

Capital devours and competes with each other, and this is the most cruel era, and it is impossible to survive by conscience and human nature.

But at this time, the brothers who were drinking in Mincheng did not talk about those miserable child laborers, but talked about everything related to their own vital interests.

The two brothers are Qiao Tiexin and Qiao Shijiao, one is a backbone member of the New Mo Party, and the other is a small bourgeoisie who has experienced all kinds of impacts brought about by the wave of changes in production relations forced by Chen Jian in a short period of time.

His father's soy sauce workshop was squeezed by Chen Jian's cheaper hydrolyzed soy sauce, and Qiao Shijiao opened a small textile workshop, and after three years of good life, he ushered in the large-scale promotion of water-powered spinning machines and the capital flow brought about by the rise in cotton yarn prices.

Three years of good life, the accumulated little money is not enough to buy a set of water-powered spinning machines and a full set of water-powered machines such as carding, twisting, and rolling. Those who got their first pot of gold by land, navigation, smuggling, embezzlement, fraud, and speculation were one step ahead.

The brothers haven't sat together for a long time, and the food on the wine table silently reveals the imprint of the changing times.

Kerosene lamps are lit, liquor made from sugar cane waste from the Southern Islands is drunk, dried tofu and peanuts are said to have a ham flavor as a side dish, and a wooden box containing tobacco and paper rolls is placed under the table.

The slightly yellowed fingers of the smoked skillfully rolled up a cigarette, lightly biting the yellowed mustache, took out a match and lit it, and extinguished it with a shaking hand.

The brothers had been drinking for a long time, and it was time for the glass bottle to smoke a cigarette.

After talking a lot before, Qiao Shijiao continued his brother's words: "Yes, what you said is right. Technology, or science, as you would call it, has changed a lot. But brother, your brother and my life have been ruined by science and technology.

Qiao Shigu took a puff of cigarette, squinted his eyes and sighed: "Now that the price of cotton yarn is falling day by day, where can the hand-spun yarn compare to those machines that are strong and delicate?" A broken machine can drive dozens of spindles, but we have to rely on our hands. You talk all day long about making everyone's life better, but I don't notice it, I just see that I'm getting worse and worse. ”

"I'm pretty good, I can hold on, it's a big deal, I still have a few stocks, and I'm still hungry. But how are those who still rely on women spinning at home have been doing since this year? Speculators often speculate on cotton on futures exchanges, buy cotton and spin it into yarn, and then they are picked and chosen, and they earn a pound of cotton after working for a year...... Will be enough to make himself a pair of torn pants so that he will not go out bare-assed. ”

"Didn't you speak for the poor? Why is there no movement at all now? Other parties are taking advantage of the opportunity to do things, but it turns out that you who are the most active don't even let out a fart. ”

Qiao Tiexin silently rolled some more tobacco leaves, handed it to his younger brother to refill a match, and said in silence for a long time: "Brother, I really don't know how to tell you." To put it mildly, you are going to be wiped out eventually. ”

Qiao Shi slapped the table and scolded: "Look, this is your face." Exterminate, exterminate...... Do you know why you are getting less and less following in Mincheng? Because you destroy and destroy ...... at every turn."

Qiao Tiexin shook his head and said with a wry smile: "How can we have this ability?" It is not us who will destroy you, but the times. This is progress, how can we oppose it? And how can it be opposed? ”

"Progress is to make us live year after year? Who's doing well? Who has improved? Who benefits? Those of us who could have hired two or three hired workers from our own surplus have fallen, but the people at the bottom have not changed. Who are you for? Yes, technology is advancing, but we're not as good as the guild was when it originally existed. At that time, as long as there was a well-meaning guild leader, everyone would always balance everyone's interests and be able to eat together. What now? The guild is a fart, the cotton spinning guild is dead, even if you want to raise the price, those water-powered yarn mills in the upper valley of the Min River will make the price fall to the bottom in a few days. ”

Qiao Tiexin asked rhetorically, "Do you really like when the original guild was still there?" ”

The other party was silent for a moment, shook his head and said, "Maybe there was obvious bullying at that time, but at least the moral face is passable." Even if it's not good, even if it's wrong, even if it's backward and regressive, I was really better off then than I am now. You don't have a solution? ”

As soon as he heard this, Qiao Tiexin's eyes suddenly lit up, and he hurriedly said, "You heard about me, brother, this is not ......"

Before he finished speaking, Qiao Shijiao waved his hand and interrupted: "What do you want to say that it is not the fault of the machine, but whose fault the machine belongs to." I believe what you say, and I just ask you now, do you have a solution? Can you do it? What do you do before you can't? Just waiting? Why are you waiting for what you've been advertising all day long, until the technology is very advanced? So why are you living now? Why don't you organize your party after the technology has progressed? What's the use of you being alive now? ”

Qiao Tiexin smiled: "It's not that we don't do nothing, but we keep doing it again." Aren't we chasing the 10-and-a-half-hour workday, the universal voting of workers, and so on? Let's put it this way, the times are unstoppable, and you people are destined to be wiped out by the times. Don't be afraid to eliminate these two words, what the times eliminated is the Qiao Shi intestine with a few small spinning machines, replaced by a Qiao Shi intestine working in the factory. And not to destroy you as a person. Even if we speak for you, we can only keep you alive for a few more years, so why don't we prepare for the future? ”

", I think if this continues, I will have to be wiped out, and I will have to eat. Don't talk about those useless ones, you tell me that now in Mincheng, can the factory accommodate so many people? What about these people who can't afford it? Starve? and other relief? Going to the sea to immigrate and go to sea? I will have these two means of making a living together, the soy sauce workshop has brought you down, and now I want to bring down my small spinning workshop, and the era of understatement will be over? If it's any Chen Jian of yours, my soy sauce workshop will be running well. If there were no scientific and practical research institutes, my small spinning workshop would have been opened well. You're talking about things that are too far away, so I'm going to ask you what to do now? Regardless of us? ”

Qiao Tiexin hesitated for a moment, looked at his younger brother who had grown up together since childhood, and nodded solemnly: "No matter." Wait until you have nothing left. It doesn't matter if you are not the business of our party faction, now we do not represent the interests of the whole people. ”

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