August 15, 1652, Port of Rocha.

Standing in a rented warehouse on the docks, Sirigu carefully observed the latest batch of finished products from the Luocha Textile Factory. This is the factory using waste silk after the special process to produce the silk spinning silk, Xiligu looked carefully, only to see that the color of the silk cloth in his hand is still quite bright, the feel is also relatively soft, it can be seen that it is a relatively high-grade textile.

"Very nice fabric." Sirigu judged: "Unlike silk with long fibers, this silk with short fibers also has its own peculiarities. If we advertise it well, we don't even have to lower the price, and we can sell this silk spun cloth as well, which is really good. ”

This kind of silk spinning silk in Sirigu's hands was developed by the people of the east coast according to the construction of the immigrant Italian and Ming silk spinning workers, and lasted several years. The main reason why it takes so long is that semi-mechanized carding machines, spinning machines and looms have to be redesigned, tested and finalized, and this cycle can drag on for a long time. To be honest, if it were not for the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to allocate special funds to support it, a few years may not be enough to make this kind of silk spinning machinery.

Of course, since this kind of machinery was funded and sponsored by the East Coast Republic, and there was nothing to do with the Genoese people, the patented technology of this new machine was also retained in the newly established Luocha Silk Spinning Factory (100% owned by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce), and part of the production tasks were also carried out by this factory, and only the styles that involved the special needs of the European market and the market would be handed over to the Luoqia Textile Factory for production - in the form of selling silk to the Luoqia Textile Factory.

The silk that Sirigu was holding at the moment was produced by the Locha Textile Mill, which they bought from the Rocha Silk Mill (many of which had been printed and dyed) and spun it into ribbons, shawls, scarves, gloves, socks and other items that were widely demanded in the European market. The Genoese channel of the ultimatum was sold everywhere - mainly in the Greater Spanish market (Spain, the South Netherlands, Naples, Parma, etc.).

And the raw materials for the production of this silk. To put it bluntly, it's actually quite simple. And they are all things of very low value, such as cocoon residues left after the silk reeling process, damaged cocoons that cannot be continuously unwinded, normal discarded materials in the process of twisting, and so on. This kind of thing, which is collectively called waste silk, has a large proportion in the process of artificial silkworm raising and silk reeling, often between half and two-thirds. In other words, only half of the silk produced by captive-bred silkworms (in many cases, only 30%-40%) can be used for silk reeling, and the rest is waste silk.

Since the proportion of waste silk is so high, it is a pity to abandon it, therefore. In the 17th century, in all the places where silkworms were raised in the world (Ming Dynasty, Persia, India, Italy, France, etc.), the local people began to study the utilization of waste silk. Among them, France and Italy are ignored because of the pitiful small scale of silkworm raising, and India is mainly wild silk, which can also be discarded.

The Persians, for unknown reasons, have not been able to make good use of this, so that when the easterners went to Bandar Abbas to trade, they could buy a large amount of scrap silk at a price that was almost free; It's different in Daming. In Ningbo, which had just been restored for less than two years, Huang Yi was buying raw silk in various counties. The waste silk in the hands of local silkworm farmers and merchants is counted as money, but the price is slightly inferior (because the waste silk is more troublesome to deal with, there are many processes, and the production cost is higher), and there is no chance for you to pick it up in vain.

The technology of the East Coast people to deal with waste silk was originally learned from these Ming immigrants (there are also a few Italian silkworm farmers with more skilled skills, who also have deep research on silkworm breeding and silk reeling, especially the books on the study of silkworm diseases and pests, which also flowed into China during the Qing Dynasty in the later generations, so that Chinese can learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses and learn how foreigners raise silkworms). It's just that the Ming people are handmade techniques that have been passed down from generation to generation, while the East Coast people carry out mechanized design after thoroughly understanding these processes, so as to make the whole process easier and faster, improve production efficiency, and create greater benefits.

In this process, the process of degumming the waste silk - soaking the waste silk for a few days, then cooking it in alkaline water, and then coarsely filtering, cleaning, and drying - is difficult to produce with a machine, so this step still requires factory workers to manually remove viscous substances from the waste silk; After the degumming process, it is carding and spinning, and these special machines are not small differences from cotton textile machines (because the fiber process is different, and the material characteristics are also very different), but after years of design improvement, there is no major problem, and it can basically be combed and spinned normally.

In the subsequent weaving process, the East Coast people also developed a large number of new machinery, such as semi-mechanized, semi-manual jacquard machines and so on. Of course, this kind of machinery is not much different from the machinery of Luoqia Textile Factory, and it can be regarded as a kind of machine. At present, natural science research is working overtime, preparing to develop a fully automatic carding machine and spinning machine on the basis of the existing machinery, so as to make the silk spinning industry, an important branch of the textile completely rejuvenated, and create greater benefits for the East Coast Republic of China.

These benefits are currently reflected in the silk and silk, silk and linen (silk cotton, silk wool) blended fabrics, knitted fabrics, lace, silk weaving products of Luoqia Textile Factory, which have brought more than 600,000 yuan of income to the East Coast every year (after half of the dividends), and the market and profits are still growing rapidly. At this time, anyone with a little bit of brains can foresee how far the profits of the East Coast people will soar when the lower-cost silk spinning silk enters the market!

After tasting the superhuman profits of the silk fabric industry, any textile industry practitioner will not be very interested in the linen, cotton and wool industries with low profit margins. Those industries - especially the cotton textile industry - work hard for a whole year, often not enough to cover the profits of Luoqia Textile Factory for a few months (of course, Luoqia Textile Factory is limited by market factors, and can produce normally for a few months a year), which is simply not reassuring to continue.

The export of large quantities of silk fabrics to Europe is also of great significance to avoid the highly competitive wool market, where profit margins are declining. You must know that in the past, people on the East Coast sold millions of cotton cloths to Europe a year, which had already attracted the hatred of countless people. Even some of the cloth merchants, who dealt in linen and woolen cloth on a daily basis, were in great decline under the onslaught of the cheap new thing of cotton cloth on the East Coast, and naturally began to use all means to discredit the textiles of the East Coast in their own interests - and, if possible, to prevent them from entering their territory as much as possible, so as not to rob them of their profits.

At this time, the appropriate introduction of new products and new patterns is of great significance to reduce the hostility of East Coast textiles in Europe. Silk fabrics are expensive, with high profit margins per piece, which is suitable for the rich and nobles; The price of silk cotton and silk wool blended fabrics is slightly lower, but the comfort range may be higher, which is very suitable for the consumption of some small and medium-sized businessmen and government officials in Europe today.

When these markets are developed, the people of the East Coast will be able to greatly reduce their dependence on the export of cotton textiles, and in the future, traditional textiles such as cotton cloth and woolen wool will be able to sell steadily in the existing market, without having to take great risks to compete with European cloth merchants or guilds to open up new markets, which will greatly benefit the external image of the "original sin" (yellow race, pagan) country on the East Coast.

"After the silk spinning came out, the Italian textile industry, which was already in a difficult situation, may be even more unsustainable." Sirigu didn't know why he suddenly thought of this, but he put the silk spinning on the table next to him, and said in a slightly sad tone: "The wool textile industry in Genoa, Milan, Tuscany, Lucca, and Venice is already on the downhill road, and the cotton textile industry is also in a difficult situation under the competition on the east coast. Is there still a need to save zài? ”

No one can return to the question of Silicus at this moment. In fact, the Italian silk weaving industry is now struggling to survive under the constraints of raw materials (a small part of it is produced and most of it is imported from the Ottoman Empire), and this is not a matter of a year or two, but if it were not for the outbreak of war between Britain and the Netherlands, Italian silk could be exported directly to Britain and its colonies (which means that the Dutch's share of profits was saved), these industries would have been dying. Especially after the Genoese brought some skilled silk weaving workers and techniques to the east coast - and at the same time provided a rare sales market - the Italian silk weaving industry is likely to be disintegrating at an accelerated pace.

Shaking his head and lamenting the glory of the Italian textile industry in the days of his ancestors and fathers, Sirigu grabbed a quill and began to write letters to the local firm of St. George, saying that they would purchase large quantities of low-cost silk from the east coast, while continuing to explore the market and squeeze out the purchasing power of the last rial, which was also in their own interest.

You see, Mr. Sirigu, as a senior manager of Genoa with national pride, has a sympathetic attitude towards the Italian textile industry, which is struggling with the competition on the East Coast, and at the same time does not miss every opportunity to make money on his own, even if it is based on the damage to the Italian textile industry. (To be continued......) R1292