After the small storm of the Charuya attack passed, the iron ore working group continued westward.

Two hundred immigrants and two hundred pirates began the arduous work of dredging the river. The further upstream, the narrower the channel, the shallower the water depth, and the more serious the siltation of the river, the phenomenon of broken flow that can rarely be seen in the downstream section is common here, and the navigation conditions are not optimistic.

In fact, strictly speaking, there is no shortage of water in the middle reaches of the Yi River, on the contrary, there are large swampy wetlands everywhere. It is the trickle of water that flows from these swampy wetlands that provides a huge supply of water to the lower reaches of the Yi River, so Shao Shude plans to use these natural swamps and miniature lakes to dig the river forward.

This is a difficult task, and with the current manpower, there is no possibility of completing it in a short time. Fortunately, however, with the Lower River Fort now taking shape, the distance to transport supplies is much shorter, and the whole project is still slowly but surely being carried out.

Leaving aside the people who toiled on the East Coast, let's turn our gaze to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean – Bordeaux, in the southwest of France on the Old Continent.

As far back as Roman rule, the capital city of the province of Aquitania (1) on the Gironde River flourished on foreign trade. In 1598, when Henry IV issued the tolerant Edict of Nantes, which ended the war-torn wars, Bordeaux was on the fast track to development.

Due to its unique geographical location, Bordeaux was one of the largest ports of French foreign trade at this time. cane sugar, tobacco, cocoa from the West Indies; pepper and cinnamon from Ceylon, Sumatra and India; ginger and nutmeg from Arabia, India, China; cloves from Malaya and the Moluccas; Precious stones from India, Ceylon, and Persia, wool shawls, perfumes, incense, glass, porcelain, cotton textiles, silk products, and other goods from all over the world gathered here, and from here they flowed into the interior of France and even the neighboring German regions.

The boom in trade led to economic prosperity and an increase in the living standards of the people here. The local aristocrats and big merchants in Bordeaux lived in an extremely luxurious manner, and for this, Xu Xin and the three of them, who had just arrived in the Old Continent, were really eye-opening.

At Julian's lavish estate on the banks of the Gironde, well-dressed servants lined up to bring to the table dishes such as Mexican turkey, Newfoundland cod, local foie gras, and delicious red wine and brandy. In addition, both the host and the guests used silver cutlery and other cutlery that were rarely seen in this era (2).

It has to be said that after the development of the New World, the average standard of living of the wealthy class in Europe has risen a lot at this time. On the contrary, at this time, the standard of living of the Ming gentry was generally declining, and this trend between the two sides was still accelerating.

Since arriving in Bordeaux in May with Julien and Mathilde of the Pasquier family, they have been busy inspecting markets and setting up trading stations. When they arrived in Bordeaux, they realized how useless the £500 they had was, and that they had spent most of their money after buying a two-storey house with a cellar on the banks of the Gironde, and that the rest of the money might be enough to hire a few gatekeepers.

The owner of the house was originally an old aristocrat, but unfortunately he was not able to run his own property during the social transition period after the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but continued to maintain the original life of vanity and luxury, and as a result, he was in debt and had to sell part of his property to pay off the debt.

This stone house is not small, and there is a courtyard in front of it, but the style and style are a little older. The style of the house is sturdy, heavy and serious in the Middle Ages, and the furniture is all thick, bulky, and completely out of step with the Italian style that is now popular in France - the ornate and bright mansions and intricately carved furniture, so it is no wonder that the owners of the houses are willing to sell for a low price of 360 pounds.

However, this is nothing for the traversers, who originally used this place as a trading station and warehouse. Even when they saw the thick oak furniture in the house, everyone was a little surprised: the materials were so abundant.

The whole house is a reception room, and due to the structure of the house, the reception room is a little dark even during the day. Xu Xin found a few candles made of animal fat from the underground utility room, inserted them into the iron candlestick, and lit them, and then the room lit up.

"Let's talk about it, it's been more than a month here, how do you feel?" Xu Xin asked, sitting on an oak chair and pouring a little wine for everyone.

"I'll talk about it first." Tao Chenxi took the wine glass, and then was the first to speak: "A while ago, I went with Julian to visit his father, Pasquier Sr., in the textile factory outside the city. To be honest, I had made up in my mind many times before I went to his textile factory, but I was still surprised when I first saw this large textile "factory" that is said to be one of the largest in Bordeaux. There is no other reason than that the factory is so shabby, and there may be only forty or fifty employees, most of whom are part-time farmers. These farmers come to the factory to work when they are idle or lack of money, ginning, rinsing, spinning, weaving, washing and dyeing, etc., the efficiency of the labor process is very low, the loss of raw materials is very large, almost 3-4 catties of cotton can weave a piece of cloth. Moreover, their skills are very unskilled, and many workers need to be retrained, presumably because the workers are more mobile and irregular. ”

"How much lint does it cost us to weave a piece of cloth now?" Xu Xin asked, "I remember maybe less than three catties?" ”

"Now it's only two to two and a half pounds. When the workers' skills are proficient, their sense of responsibility is up, and their management is in place, they will improve labor efficiency and reduce labor costs. Tao Chenxi said, "In fact, this is the difference between modern factories and traditional handicraft industries." The Pasquier family's textile workshops, including those handmade woolen workshops in England, were actually just the prototype of a factory, and were essentially traditional handicrafts. For example, the English, they gave their wool to farmers on credit, and after the farmers had spun the yarn, they sold the primary products to designated merchants, exchanged for wool, and then went home to spin the yarn. What's more, these jobs are their side hustles, and they are still essentially a group of farmers. Whether it is England or France, or Italy where the handicraft industry is more developed, they lack workers in the modern sense. ”

"Hmm." Xu Xin nodded and said, "The traditional handicraft industry is destined to be eliminated by the modern machine manufacturing industry. As far as I know, the number of workers in the Pasquier family's workshop is quite large, and the number of employees in most of the workshops and workshops here is only a few people. According to the data, until the Second French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte, three-quarters of French enterprises employed less than 10 people, which accounted for about 60% of the total number of employees. Therefore, at this time, France can be said to be still a country with a very developed small peasant economy. Moreover, she did not adopt new agricultural techniques as the British, resulting in agriculture tying too many people to the land. Alas, speaking of which, there was no European country at this time that could compare with Britain in terms of social organization, industrial technology, religious tolerance, adventurous spirit, bourgeois power, etc., and it was really no accident that the Industrial Revolution occurred in Britain. ”

"Ahem, I'm off topic." Sun Bo, who had been sitting next to him drinking and not speaking, cleared his throat and said, "Let's not care about the industrial revolution for now." What we are concerned about now is the sales of our products, I also visited the Pasquier family's workshop once, producing some cotton, gloves, stockings and a small amount of woollen wool, the quality is not good, the price is not low, but the sales are not bad, you know what is the reason for this, right? ”

"I probably know the way, let me talk about it first, you see if it's right." Tao Chenxi put the wine glass on the table, sat up straight and said: "At present, among all the 32 provinces in France, only 13 provinces in the central region have established a customs union, and the other 19 border provinces and regions are still full of checkpoints, and there are many local taxes, consumption taxes and other taxes. What's worse is that most of these provinces and regions are not unified in weights and measures, the tax system is also different, some local laws and regulations even contradict each other, and there is a rigid and backward guild system that hinders the development and circulation of commerce. All in all, the cost of circulating goods from one province to another can be quite high, and some goods can only be circulated in a small area at all. Speaking of which, although the royal power of France has been greatly strengthened through religious wars, the local feudal separatism is still very strong, which is incomparable with the English heart. ”

"If the answer is correct, add 10 points." Xu Xin joked, and then said, "As you have all seen, the market is very large, and the purchasing power of the residents is also very strong, but the factors that hinder free trade and the flow of goods are still very strong. But we don't have to be too greedy, starting with Bordeaux and slowly infiltrating the whole Gascony region, and then consider other provinces and regions after gaining a foothold. Our competitors were mainly local small-scale peasant economic craftsmen, as well as local guilds where protectionism prevailed, and the influence of British goods was not yet very great here. So, guys, let's do it together. ”

"It's done!" Several people clinked glasses together.

(1) Bordeaux was at this time the capital city of the Gascony-Gyenne department in southwestern France.

(2) Until the beginning of the 18th century, food was still eaten by hand in the Austrian royal palace. The promotion and popularization of cutlery and other tableware was only after the French luxury culture swept across Europe.

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