The so-called silkworm plague, the technical experts of the Ministry of Industry of the Ming Dynasty are no strangers, because the Ministry of Industry as early as ten years ago, has established a large-scale silkworm base in Guangxi, not only from France, Italy to introduce the European white silkworm, and has been domesticated to adapt to the climate of the two Guangzhou, but also the use of silkworm species from all over China for cross-breeding, cultivated several kinds of Ming silkworm species. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Although these silkworm species have been popularized in all parts of the Ming Dynasty, but the proportion is still not much, only one-tenth of the appearance, the majority of silkworm farmers still prefer the local silkworm species, the local silkworm species have taken root for hundreds of years, the most suitable for the local climate, although the European silkworm is large, the silk is white, but the growth period is long, only four or five times a year, and the local silkworm species in Guangdong, the eight mess is the passing number.

As for the local varieties that have been cultivated, they have not yet been popularized because they have just been promoted.

Of course, these improved varieties have nothing to do with silkworm plague, and silkworm plague affects not only European silkworm species.

This silkworm plague is called silkworm microparticle disease, which originates from a virus that has been present since the time of silkworm eggs and has been ravaging Europe for half a century.

The French have invented an effective solution, called microscopic examination, the principle is very simple, in fact, it is to screen out the poisonous silkworm eggs through a microscope to ensure that the hatched silkworm babies are healthy. The reason is very simple, but microscope, microscopic examination, this is not something that small silkworm farmers can afford, large sericulture farms in France can enter a set of equipment, and it is not easy for Daming to promote it.

At present, it is the breeding base that has these equipment and related technical personnel.

Therefore, as soon as the silkworm plague broke out, the silkworm farmers were immediately helpless, and could only watch the silkworms they raised die one by one, or the cocoons were broken, and they wanted to cry without tears.

The impact of the lack of harvest of silkworm farmers is that the production of silk reeling has dropped by one-third in one year, and it is the Ministry of Household and the Ministry of Industry that is in charge of civil affairs and industry, so silkworm plague has immediately become the biggest enemy of these two departments.

The two departments quickly took action, and the breeding base became the key to winning this enemy, and the local government also actively cooperated, with traditional posters and new newspaper propaganda to encourage silkworm farmers to adopt new silkworm seeds.

At the same time, mobilize various organizations, the local public bureau is the main force, these rural autonomous institutions, composed of a squire, go deep into the countryside, in the countryside mobilization ability is stronger than the government, a few years ago by the education to the countryside incident, the public bureau has not recovered its vitality for a long time, has always been a subsidiary of the local government, so that the public bureau again regained confidence is the disaster relief operation four years ago, although the Ming did not suffer, but the famine in the north, will inevitably affect the price of food in the Ming Dynasty, a large amount of rice was sent to the north, Some of them are to go to the disaster relief, and some are transported by businessmen, which led to the soaring price of grain in Daming, and then the public bureau was mobilized to supervise local grain prices and prevent unscrupulous businessmen from hoarding Juqi.

This time, they took action again, and the government collected the silkworm seeds from the breeding base and the silkworm seeds from the areas that had not yet been affected by the silkworm plague, and then sent them to the public bureau in the silkworm plague epidemic area, and then sent them down one by one.

It lasted a whole year, and the government allocated 10 million taels of disaster relief funds to finally contain the silkworm plague by the end of the year.

However, this year's raw silk trade was ruined, and the export of raw silk in Daming plummeted, and even the international silk price rose by one percent.

The loss is still second, the Chinese people have the habit of saving, the mulberry sericulture market has been good for two years, the silkworm farmers generally have some savings in their hands, and they will not be able to open the pot, the key is how to learn the lessons of the silkworm plague and establish a prevention mechanism.

The plan of the Ministry of Industry is that starting next year, the three large mulberry silkworm areas in Nanfanshun will be established to publicize and encourage silkworm farmers to purchase improved varieties from the breeding base, which will not only greatly improve the quality of the Ming silkworm, but also be a necessary measure to prevent silkworm plague, but these breeding bases are obviously unlikely to make a profit, and the annual investment funds are probably two million taels.

After just experiencing the panic of silkworm plague, the Daming household department did not hesitate to approve this fee.

Daming silkworm farmers are lucky, there is the government to help disaster relief, but the silkworm farmers in Jiangsu are not so lucky, silkworm plague is not specifically for Daming, the virus across the ocean is a weapon of mass destruction, and the silkworm plague in Jiangsu and Zhejiang has also broken out.

The raw silk industry here has been seriously affected, and Shanghai's raw silk exports have dropped from 85,000 bales at its peak to 55,000 bales, and there is a possibility of further decline.

The fierce rise and fall of prices is not conducive to the development of an industry, but for some speculators, it is a good season, in the free market, the rise can make money, the fall can actually make money, as long as there is fluctuation, there will be a difference, there is a difference, there is space.

Therefore, Shanghai's raw silk hoarding business gradually began to be lively, and a group of silk merchants such as Hu Xueyan made a windfall, and their appetite became fatter.

Zhu Jinglun couldn't touch the affairs of Shanghai, and there were a lot of things under his nose.

After several years of stability, the Bank of Guangzhou finally cooperated with the Daming Bank to clean up the old banknotes, the account books of the Bank of Guangzhou, a total of one billion taels of banknotes were printed, and only 980 million taels of banknotes could be recovered, and the 20 million taels of banknotes disappeared inexplicably, perhaps they were worn, perhaps forgotten, or treasured by collectors who were ahead of the times, in short, before the old banknotes stopped circulating, no one came to exchange for new banknotes.

With the withdrawal of old banknotes from the market, the stronger new banknotes replaced the status of Guangfu banknotes, began to circulate in the Ming Dynasty, and even the entire coastal port, this kind of gold and silver coins licensed by the Ming government to guarantee the banknotes, the credit is very strong, completely suspended the era of financial chaos, in recent years, the Ming industry has developed steadily and rapidly, and it can be said that the stable financial system has also contributed to it.

There is a guarantee of more than 200 million taels of gold in Japan's compensation, and Daming Bank has minted a total of 300 million taels of gold coins with its own reserves, which is very peculiar, the smallest is ten taels of face value. But the weight is only 31.25 grams, less than the weight of one tael, the reason is very simple, the Ming Dynasty uses the gold and silver standard, originally a tael banknote refers to a tael of silver, but nominally linked to gold and silver at the same time, the price of fixed gold and silver coins is one to sixteen, fifty taels of one-sixteenth is just 3.125 grams, so ten taels of gold coins is 31.25 grams of weight of gold casting, representing the meaning is not ten taels of gold, but worth ten taels of silver gold.

This complex standard system, coupled with the power support of the Ming government, prohibits any money bank, silver number free minting silver, only the Ming Bank has the right to mint money, so it is a good guarantee of the ratio of gold and silver coins, it is easier to resist the price fluctuation of gold and silver in the international market, which is the fundamental reason for the stability of this monetary system.