Before leaving, Zhao Dan inspected the last and most special workshop, the textile workshop.

This workshop was originally set up in the palace castle of Zhaoguo, but later the scale gradually expanded, so it was also relocated to Shanglin Garden.

The reason why this place is special is that all men work in the other workshops, but in this workshop it is all women.

The mill is divided into three sections, namely sericulture, wool and cotton.

There is nothing to say about sericulture, it has always been one of the traditional handicrafts of the Chinese people.

Wool has gradually become the main business of the mills.

First of all, due to the gradual stabilization of the situation in the desert grassland in the north of Zhao State, a large number of lambs have begun to be produced, and a breeding farm has been set up next to the textile mill, which has tens of thousands of sheep, just to ensure the supply of wool.

"With so many sheep, can there be enough food?" Zhao Dan couldn't help but ask with some curiosity.

The housekeeper who led the way in front of Zhao Dan smiled, and then said, "The king doesn't know that today's feed is all purchased from merchants. ”

As soon as Zhao Dan heard it, he knew that the forage for this farm was actually purchased directly from some big businessmen in Zhao State, and from the mouth of the housekeeper, Zhao Dan could even hear several super big businessmen who were famous in Zhao State.

"Forage is not worth much, why are these big businessmen willing to do this business?" Zhao Dan was even more puzzled in his heart.

The steward explained: "My lord, the reason why these big merchants are willing to sell forage is not because of how profitable the forage itself is, but because their forage is supplied for free. ”

Under the explanation of the housekeeper, Zhao Dan understood.

The reason why merchants are willing to provide forage for free is actually very simple - they need the products produced in the sheep.

After several years of market cultivation, cheap and thick woolen sweaters have been widely supported by the middle and lower class people in Zhao and have become essential winter clothes in Handan.

Given that Handan has always been the place that leads the trend of the Zhao Kingdom, it seems that it is only a matter of time before woolen sweaters become popular all over the country.

And the sheep is not only wool, the sheepskin can also be made into sheepskin mattress, mutton is also a very good meat, and some parts of the sheep can also be used in medicine.

When the housekeeper said this, she smiled proudly at Zhao Dan: "In this way, there are clothing merchants, butchers and medicine merchants who are willing to provide free forage for the textile mill, and almost all the wool products in Handan are from the textile mill at the moment, so there is no need to worry about sales at all." ”

As soon as Zhao Dan heard this, he understood, sure enough, any business is the most profitable monopoly.

Zhao Dan is still very happy to see this matter come to fruition, after all, Shaofu is such a big stall, if there are not a few profitable industries, it can't be said.

After inspecting the busy wool mill, Zhao Dan was very satisfied with the scene in front of him.

This kind of scene of hundreds or thousands of women sitting together shaking the weaving machine is still very spectacular and exciting.

For a moment, Zhao Dan even had an illusion in his heart, that is, he seemed to have returned to the afterlife, back to the production line of that kind of factory.

Zhao Dan likes this feeling very much.

You must know that with years of war, Zhao State, or the whole of China, is now in a situation where there are more women than men, especially adults between the ages of 20 and 40.

In this way, there will be many widows, and there will be many older women who cannot marry.

So in order to prevent these girls from continuing to waste food at home, many parents simply sell them and use them as maids or concubines for large families.

This kind of behavior is obviously intolerable to Zhao Dan.

A factory like this is the best place to house these women.

Instead of letting them be concubines and maidservants for others, it is better to let these women become the widow's own labor force and create wealth for the widow and the Zhao State.

To some extent, this is also a way for Zhao Dan, the monarch, to compete with the great nobles for population.

So Zhao Dan praised the first female workshop manager of Zhao State in front of him, in addition to a generous reward, he also told her one thing: "Do a good job, in the future, the widow will open more branches, as long as you can do these things for the widow, the widow can not only add officials to your husband and children, but also give you a title!" ”

Zhao Sheng, who had been following Zhao Dan, was stunned when he heard this, but he didn't say anything.

The steward was overjoyed, and hurriedly prostrated herself and bowed down: "Dare not die for the king!" ”

Before leaving, Zhao Dan went to look at the cotton again.

Cotton is a weapon to keep out the cold, this is something that must be paid attention to, cotton clothes and quilts are simply life-saving things for ordinary people in winter.

Compared with the flourishing sericulture and the wool spinning in full swing, the situation on the cotton side is much more deserted.

Zhao has the geographical conditions to grow cotton.

In later generations, there were five major commercial cotton bases in China, namely the central and southern Hebei provinces, the northwestern Henan Plain, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Yangtze River Plain, the Jianghuai Plain, the Jianghan Plain and the southern Xinjiang cotton area.

Among them, the central and southern Hebei and northwestern Henan plains are the large Central Plains where Handan, the capital of Zhao is located today.

It's just that because the planting of cotton has just started, large-scale cotton planting still needs experience, and the economic benefits of planting cotton are not reflected now, so for the time being, Shaofu only set aside a piece of nearly 10,000 acres of land in the Shanglin Garden for planting.

However, according to the manager here, cotton products can be produced one after another from the beginning of this year, and large-scale mass production and supply to the market will be achieved in two years.

Zhao Dan thought about it and felt that tens of thousands of acres of land sounded scary, but considering that Handan City is now a big city with a population of nearly one million, and the yield of cotton per mu in this era is far less than that of later generations, what can this cotton be used for?

So Zhao Dan didn't think about it and said to the Shaofu Ling behind him: "Starting next year, the planting area of cotton will be expanded tenfold. ”

Looking at the Shaofu Order, who wanted to speak and stopped, Zhao Dan smiled and said: "Don't worry, this business is not profitable." ”

Zhao Sheng on the side coughed and said, "The king is the king of a country, and it is better to talk less about this businessman's business." ”

Zhao Dan laughed and said: "Pingyuan Jun's words are wrong, Shaofu is a widow's industry, and it can make the widow's industry make more money, and it is also for the good of the widow and Zhao Guo." ”

Zhao Dan doesn't have the stinky problems of Zhao Sheng, who are obviously in private with big businessmen and even secretly support many big businessmen to make money for themselves, but on the surface, he is very high-minded, as if he is not engaged in economic activities at all.

Not to mention anything else, just Zhao Sheng, this plain monarch's mansion has a group of 3,000 wives and concubines, if he only relied on the output of Yulu and that bit of fiefdom, he should have starved to death.

The reason why Zhao Sheng was able to live such a rich life was not because Zhao Sheng's family had two of the largest private smelters in Zhao State, five lacquer gardens, and a lot of other industries that even Zhao Sheng couldn't count.

"The economy is very important, Pingyuanjun, only by getting the economy up can there be hope for the future of Zhao Kingdom." While Zhao Dan boarded the carriage, he did not forget to educate Zhao Sheng, who seemed to understand whether he understood or not.

However, Zhao Dan was not very worried that Zhao Sheng would not understand, because it was a big deal, and it would be enough to change to another Xiangbang.

Now there is no shortage of capable people in the whole world, what is lacking is just obedient people.