It is not only the supply of canvas that bothers the Executive Committee, in fact, all kinds of textile products are the materials needed to cross the group. The gauze used by the medical department, the cotton cloth needed by the people to make clothes, the silk cloth used to wrap gunpowder packets, and the canvas that is most urgently needed at the moment but have not been able to find a suitable source, these textiles are added together, and the amount required is actually quite large, but there is no merchant on Qiongzhou Island who can supply the group in a stable way.

The reason for this is actually very simple, because the number of textiles produced locally on Qiongzhou Island is very small, and fabrics made of kapok as raw materials such as Yazhou Jibeibu have always been in short supply because their output is too low. The use of fabrics by the crossing group is huge, and it is completely unable to meet the needs by relying on local production alone.

For this situation, it is not that no one has expressed doubts to the Ministry of Agriculture, why don't we grow our own cotton?

For these questions, the head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Yuan Ruoxiu, personally came forward to explain. Cotton is a heat-loving crop, the sunshine time and average temperature of Hainan can be planted cotton, but the flowering period and harvest period of cotton are water-avoiding, and the place where Hainan is located belongs to the tropical monsoon climate, more rain, air humidity, from this point of view is not suitable for cotton planting. The most terrible thing is that the cotton harvest season almost coincides with the rainy season in Hainan, and this alone almost blocks the way to grow cotton. The reason why the Ministry of Agriculture prepared cotton seeds before crossing is not to plant cotton on Hainan Island and wait for the crossing group to occupy an area suitable for cotton planting in the future, and then take out this good thing to play a role.

Mr. Yuan's specialty is to study cash crops, and since the old experts have said that Hainan Island is not suitable for growing cotton, then everyone can only look outside the island. It seems that all kinds of textiles needed by the group can only rely on imports from outside at this stage. However, at this time, Mr. Yuan gave a small surprise to the discouraged executive committee members: although Hainan Island is not suitable for growing cotton, according to the experience of agricultural development in later generations, the environment of some areas of Hainan Island is suitable for growing mulberry and silkworms.

Regarding Mr. Yuan's statement, some people also expressed doubts about why they hadn't heard of silk in Hainan before crossing over?

Yuan Ruoxiu explained that the temperature difference between the four seasons in Hainan is small, and the annual sericulture time is almost twice as long as that of the inland, which is very suitable for large-scale sericulture industry. In fact, Hainan began to plant mulberry and silkworm on a large scale in the early 21st century, and it was not yet ten years before the crossing. However, according to the 12th Five-Year Development Plan formulated by the country before the crossing, by 2020, the planting area of mulberry orchards in Hainan Province will reach 600,000 mu, and the population engaged in this industry will exceed one million, which will become one of the most complete production areas of the sericulture silk industry chain in the country. Since the state has such a big plan for Hainan's sericulture industry, it shows that it is feasible to grow mulberry and raise silkworms here.

This completely aroused the interest of the Executive Committee, raw silk in this era is completely soft gold, and businessmen from Western countries take real money and silver to China every year to line up to buy. According to information provided by non-professional historian Ning Qi, the raw silk sold by the Fujian maritime merchant Xu Xinsu to the Dutch East India Company during the same period for more than 140 taels of silver per quintal. The production figures provided by Yuan Ruoxiu show that in 2006, the mulberry planting area in Qiongzhong in Hainan reached more than 30,000 mu, with an annual output of 30,000 quintals of fresh cocoons, which is about 4,000 quintals of raw silk.

Yuan Ruoxiu further pointed out that the benefits of developing the sericulture industry are not only the production of silk, but also can promote the development of a series of industries such as fruit mulberry, tea mulberry, vegetable mulberry, bamboo weaving, textile, import and export trade, etc., which will have a very positive impact on promoting regional economic development. Even in the future, just the scale of silk as a product can be enough to partially transfer the trade center of the entire East Asian region to Hainan Island.

Of course, with so many benefits, it was not without difficulties to develop this project. Before the members of the executive committee were about to call for the immediate promotion of mulberry planting, Yuan Ruoxiu explained to everyone several major difficulties in developing this industry.

The first is the rainy season in Hainan, every year from July to October is the rainy season on Hainan Island, the high temperature and high humidity environment will make the reproduction of bacteria and fungi faster, if there are no reasonable measures, it is easy to cause a large-scale outbreak of silkworm disease and reduce production; the second problem is that there are many insects in the wild in Hainan, and some species will also use mulberry leaves as food, and will spread silkworm disease, which is also one of the hidden dangers; the third is that the local people have no experience in raising silkworms, and the Ministry of Agriculture also strictly lacks relevant technical personnel, so it is almost impossible to do large-scale promotion in a short period of time; the last reason is that there are no excellent silkworm seeds in the local areaBecause this thing can not be preserved for a long time, so the Ministry of Agriculture did not carry silkworm seeds before the crossing, only brought a few mulberry trees that adapt to Hainan's climate and geographical conditions, to develop this industry, we must try to introduce silkworm seeds from other places, and it takes time to re-cultivate new silkworm seeds that can withstand high temperature and high humidity environment.

By the time Yuan Ruoxiu explained the doors and doors, most of the initial momentum of the executive committee members had dissipated. Whether it is the introduction of silkworm seeds from the mainland, the local scientific research and breeding, the training of technical personnel, and the large-scale promotion in the rural areas, there is no link that can be completed in a short period of time, and the entire industry from planning to production may not be able to achieve results in two or three years. This industry is good, but it can only be included in the development plan of the Ministry of Agriculture first, step by step.

These situations in the base camp have been informed to the Guangzhou Office by telegram and letter. The CDETO believes that it will not be too difficult to introduce silkworm seeds, because Fujian, which is close to Guangdong, has been an important sericulture producing area since ancient times. The local area has a certain scale of sericulture industry from the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, to the Song Dynasty, the scale of the silk weaving industry has been named after Sichuan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and has become one of the three major silk textile centers in the country, and Quanzhou, known as the "Thorn City", because of the developed silk weaving industry, was directly used by the Europeans who did not know the truth in the Middle Ages as a synonym for "satin", Marco Polo also compared the prosperity of Quanzhou Port with Alexandria in his travelogue.

It can be said that Fujian has very rich resources, whether it is excellent silkworm seeds, skilled workers in the silk weaving industry, and even all links of the sericulture industry chain. As long as the Guangzhou Office is willing to contribute, it is not a difficult problem to complete this task for the base camp, but only the right time and channels are missing.

The emergence of this "Yongfeng Cloth Bank" just caters to the actual needs of the Guangzhou Office. Schneider immediately asked He Xi to write a reply to the agreed meeting, and then called Yu Xiaobao in and asked him to send the reply to the other party.

In the evening of the next day, the Guangzhou shopkeeper of "Yongfeng Cloth Company" really took a small sedan chair to visit the location of the Guangzhou Office located outside Guangzhou. The reason why Schneider and others chose to choose a restaurant in the Guangzhou Office instead of in Guangzhou City also considered this, which is to uphold the principle of promoting the "Haihan advanced lifestyle", so that customers can directly contact the various commodities that the Guangzhou Office wants to promote in the mainland, such as glass tableware, stationery, bathroom equipment, Chemical products, and even the spices added to the dishes of Shengli Port, etc., all highlight the differences between the Haihan lifestyle and the Ming Dynasty, and the superiority of the Haihan reflected in these differences is enough to attract the Ming gentry to imitate, and then achieve the purpose of commodity and cultural export.

Second, meeting guests in the Guangzhou Office can also avoid the suspicion of having ears on the wall. After yesterday's bookstore opening after the limelight, the name "Haihan" is almost ** between the popularity in Guangzhou, the people found that the original months ago in the Guangzhou market to sell out of print of all kinds of novel seafood, is from the "Haihan" this has never heard of the new business name Yes, the vast majority of Guangzhou people still just the emergence of the Haihan people as a new business house settled in the local, this new business house in addition to a lot of novel and valuable things for sale, it seems that there is no essential difference with other business houses. As a result, merchants from all walks of life have gone out, hoping to get in touch with Haihan, so that they can also join the sales channels of Haihan's products.

Third, this was also done for security reasons, with reference to the opinions of two members of the military police department, Xiao Liang and Yu Yao. Although the Guangzhou Office now has more than a dozen armed personnel stationed in the city, including the militia, if the members need to enter the city, they must be accompanied by military and police personnel, although Schneider and He Xi are not impressed, and they often wander around the city of Guangzhou alone before the arrival of the second echelon. But Xiao Liang and Yu Yao still insisted on doing things in accordance with the rules and regulations, especially if they wanted to spend the night in Guangzhou at night, at least two or more security personnel should accompany them, and Schneider and He Xi, who were the first and second in command, could not spend the night in Guangzhou at the same time, and at least one person must be left in the Guangzhou Office in case of emergency.

Therefore, due to various considerations, in the end, the Guangzhou Office also took on the main task of receiving foreign affairs. Fortunately, at this time, the renovation project of the Guangzhou Office has been completed, and visitors will not see any mess.

After receiving the report, Schneider and He Xi went to the gate of the courtyard together to greet the shopkeeper of "Yongfeng Cloth Company". In addition to the people of "Fu Ruifeng", this is also the first businessman to visit after the establishment of the Guangzhou Office.

Although it was only a day since he received the other party's prayer post, He Xi still managed to get some information about this cloth shop and the shopkeeper from some sources.

The roots of "Yongfeng Cloth Shop" are in Hangzhou, and it is said to be one of the five major cloth merchants in the region, of course, the business scope of cloth merchants in this era also included other textiles, not only cotton cloth. In fact, according to the gossip He Xi received, these big cloth merchants all have a considerable area of mulberry fields and hired silkworm farmers in the local area, which means that what they have in their hands is not only a sales channel, but a complete industrial chain from production to sales, and this is exactly what the Guangzhou Office is interested in.

The shopkeeper surnamed Ma is over forty years old, although he is not the owner of the cloth shop, but it is said that he is also related to the big boss. In this era, the chain business will basically not get rid of the family business model, especially the shopkeeper who is sent to other places, if he is not related to the big boss, it is difficult to get enough trust to sit in this position.

"Yongfeng Cloth Shop" has a small shop in the city of Guangzhou, mainly selling Songjiang cloth and silk products produced in Hangzhou and Quanzhou, and the customers are basically the middle and upper classes of society. Prior to this, a considerable part of the bulk goods purchased by "Fu Ruifeng" for the crossing group, especially silk products, came from the "Yongfeng Cloth Company", and after these silks were transported back to Shengli Port, they were basically used in the customized gunpowder bags used to make zuò artillery.

The business negotiation method pursued by the Executive Committee has always been conducted at the wine table, and several members of the Executive Committee in charge of external affairs are all seasoned veterans of the wine market, and they all like to get their opponents half drunk before negotiating, so as to get twice the result with half the effort. Schneider is also one of them, when Li Nai first came to Shengli Port, Schneider was one of the main forces at the wine table, and this indirectly caused the cooperation agreement signed by the two sides to contain a large number of unfavorable clauses for "Fu Ruifeng".

After the establishment of the Guangzhou Office, the Executive Committee also specially approved dozens of catties of liquor from the inventory to them. But when they came to Guangzhou, they found that there were also several good wines in the area, even better than those they had brought with them from later generations.

Distilled liquor is not a rare thing in this era, soju has been invented in the Tang Dynasty, there are records of distilled liquor and rectifiers in the Yuan Dynasty documents, and the "Compendium of Materia Medica" of the Ming Dynasty has a detailed description of the method of making soju and its medical value. Therefore, in the wine shops of Daming, there have always been strong liquors for sale.

Of course, the wine taken out by the Guangzhou Office is much more upscale than ordinary restaurants and restaurants, because they use glass wine bottles that are difficult to see in the Daming market. This is one of the new industries that the CDETO has declared to Shengli Port, where glass bottles are produced and shipped to Guangzhou, where the GIF organizes local sources and workers to fill the liquor, then affix a nameplate and sell it at more than 10 times the original price. The feasibility of this business is extremely high, and the merchants of the Ming Dynasty are difficult to imitate because of the limited packaging, but after this plan was reported back to Shengli Port, it was temporarily shelved aside by the Executive Committee, and the existing glass product production capacity is really limited, and it is still difficult to complete the orders at hand, not to mention the glass bottles with a more complex process of making zuò, this thing only relies on the current pure manual process to blow manually, it is difficult to talk about what output, at least until the Ministry of Industry studies a simple production line for extrusion.

But even the ordinary liquor bottles brought by later generations are now enough to calm this once thought he was well-informed, not only the wine bottles, but also the bowls, plates, cups, cups, everything on the table except chopsticks, and even the small bracket for chopsticks are crystal clear glass products, this sense of luxury is something that the horse shopkeeper has never seen in his past life. Even if it was the family banquet of a certain prefect that he had been fortunate enough to attend before, he just took out two single-handle melon-shaped glass bottles to hold wine, and the table of glassware in front of him was in a shape that had never been seen in the market, and it must be a high-end product for the Haihan people's own use.

Of course, these things are not for sale, because they are all industrial products from later generations, with regular dimensions and advanced workmanship, and not crude goods made by hand in the glass workshops of Port Victory. After selling a small amount of these things to the outside world in the early days of the crossing, they were listed as prohibited materials by the Executive Committee, and are currently only used as display items for social networking or other special occasions, and will no longer be sold in large quantities.

Seeing these things, the shopkeeper can basically be sure that the rumors on the market are true, the glass products that were hyped up in Guangzhou a few days ago are indeed from the supply of the Haihan people, and this also makes him more convinced that he will be worthwhile The Haihan people who have mastered this advanced technology are undoubtedly equivalent to mastering a large amount of wealth, and the rest depends on how much ability they can get money from the pockets of the Haihan people.

After three rounds of drinking, the shopkeeper began to inquire about the foundation of the Haihan people, and Schneider did not hide this, claiming that his property was located in a seaport in Yazhou, and invited the shopkeeper to visit in person at a convenient time. Of course, the focus of Schneider's propaganda is not so much on the beauty of the local natural scenery, but on the rich variety of Haihan goods and the free duty-free policy of Shengli Port.

This shopkeeper is obviously also a person who has been walking around outside for a long time, and his eyes lit up as soon as he heard the "tax exemption": "Mr. Shi is saying that in Shengli Port, the goods do not need to pay taxes?"

Schneider smiled: "You don't even have to pay a copper plate!"

The shopkeeper rolled his eyes and asked, "Will the fee be charged according to the size of the ship, or the size of the cargo hold?" This is not a new thing, the water salary levied by the Guangzhou City Shipping Division is charged according to the size of the ship, as long as you want to collect money, the competent unit can always think of a way.

Schneider explains: "There are no taxes levied on foreign merchant ships in the port of Victory. Of course, if your firm wants to open a store in Victory Harbor, that's a different story. ”