I have to say that Mu Yongjiang's analysis makes sense, and it is no wonder that he has been in the cloth industry for so many years.

People who have common sense in life know that although everyone uses cloth, the real big families wear silk. Ordinary small doors, small households, and ordinary families wear cotton cloth and linen!

Since cotton was introduced to China during the Song and Yuan dynasties, Emperor Hongwu also issued a special decree to plant cotton in order to promote cotton. Since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the cultivation of cotton has been a common thing in China.

Therefore, cotton cloth gradually replaced linen cloth as the main raw material for the common people's clothing.

But the cloth industry, like many other industries, is divided into high and low seasons.

In general, spring and summer are the low season, and winter and autumn are the high seasons.

Why?

Because the price of cloth is very expensive, ordinary people have a habit of dressing, that is, buying cloth to make new clothes during the New Year.

Of course, China's big year is in winter, and it is understandable to buy cloth to make cotton clothes.

But what if the winter is over?

The temperature gradually rises in spring, and you can't wear a padded jacket all day!

Don't worry, the people in line with the mentality of being able to save a little is a little, and make comprehensive use of dilapidated items as much as possible.

Isn't it a padded jacket in winter?

Isn't it time to wear it?

Take it, remove it and separate the cotton cover from the cloth outside.

Cotton sleeves are washed and dried and used again in the coming year!

The outer cloth is simply sewn on the inside, and it becomes a spring and summer dress.

When the weather is cold in autumn, the crops in the field are also harvested, and a little is sold for copper plates, and then a cloth shop is exchanged for two pieces of cloth, and basically the family has a year's clothes from the inside out.

Year after year, year after year, cycle after cycle.

Therefore, the clothing habits of the common people have caused the cloth business to have an off-season and a peak season.

In Mu Yongjiang's eyes, Su Baiyi is now in a hurry like a little girl about to get married and starts buying cotton and wants to produce cloth. But how can this be produced in a moment and a half?

If nothing else, do you have a machine for spinning the thread and weaving the cloth?

Even if you buy it now, where can you supply so much?

On the other hand, even if you have dozens of machines, you always have to find someone to do the work, right?

Looking for a familiar person in general, right?

Let's play cotton in total!

But now there are twenty days before the end of the year, not to mention you Su Baiyi, even the fairy master will not be able to produce cloth in large quantities to impact the market.

Once the New Year is over!

Hehe, you can't sell the cloth you produce.

"Let the old merchant go back to Songjiang Mansion!" Mu Yongjiang waved his hand with a smile and said to the scarred face beside him: "Knife, I remember that there seems to be a lot of cotton in our warehouse!" ”

"And two hundred stones!"

"What about the price of cotton now?"

"Four cents of silver!" The knife replied.

Four cents of silver, that is, the general name of forty Wen, one tael of silver in the Ming Dynasty = one hundred cents of silver.

A faint smile appeared on Mu Yongjiang's lips.

Four cents of silver, this is much more expensive than when cotton was newly listed, and when he entered from Songjiang Mansion, it was only thirty yuan a catty.

"In a few days, our machine will be stopped, and those workers will go home for the New Year. The inventory of 200 asbestos is all for Yuyuan, hehe, I want to see how this stunned young man who has just entered the industry handles these cottons! ”

Two hundred kapok is also a thousand taels of silver.

Although a thousand taels of silver is not a lot for the two families, it is just an opportunity to suppress Su Baiyi, so that he also knows that the cloth business in Guide Mansion is not so easy to do.

"Master, this ...... This...... We're not ......" Scarface thought for a long time and didn't think of any words to use to express the profound meaning of "capital enemy", standing there motionless, anyway, he felt that it was very bad to do so.

Mu Yongjiang laughed and said, "You don't understand the Tao very well, go ahead, sell all the two hundred kapok to Yuyuan!" ”

Scarface wanted to suggest that the master take back the order, but as a subordinate, he didn't have enough courage to participate in these business things, so he could only feel very aggrieved and ran to the warehouse, told the warehouse manager to open the door, and then got the cotton inside out and sent it to the old businessman, the boss of Songjiang.

Then, through the hands of the old businessman, it was transferred to Su Baiyi.

Suddenly, there was such a large amount of raw materials, Su Baiyi was naturally happy, and did not ask how the cotton came from, so he gave the silver very happily and put all the cotton into the warehouse.

The first step in weaving is to play cotton!

The cotton that was originally strong is bounced into a flocculent shape and the cotton seeds are removed.

Then the workers will sort out the flocculent and make it into a certain shape for the textile machine to spin the thread.

The process and craftsmanship are simple, and almost everyone knows how to do it for women from the Northwest Territories. It is no wonder that textile was still a standard for measuring the virtuousness of ordinary women in ancient times, and it is not surprising that so many people know how to weave Su Baiyi.

The use of Jenny machine is definitely different from that of a traditional hand-cranked car, but since it is a textile thing, there is not much difference in principle.

Of course, Su Baiyi does not require those women to understand the principle of Jenny machine, as long as they can learn to spin yarn with Jenny machine, he wishes that these women don't know anything and can only work mechanically.

A group of women were asked to play cotton, and about 30 people were organized to come to the Jenny machine and demonstrate to them how to use the Jenny machine. Maybe women are naturally sensitive to textile items, and Su Baiyi found that they learned quickly. At least, much faster than those kids learn to write.

In half a day, I brought a lot of cotton wool to spin thread, on the one hand, to test the performance of the spinning wheel, and on the other hand, to teach the skills of spinning with Jenny machine, both of which ended perfectly.

Before the Industrial Revolution of the British Empire began, a man accidentally kicked his wife's spinning wheel, and the Jenny machine was born. When this black technology first came out, a machine could spin eight thread spindles at the same time, and when it developed to maturity, the highest record of the transformed and upgraded Jenny machine was to spin more than 80 thread spindles at the same time.

Su Baiyi did not blindly pursue the speed of spinning.

Because the speed of spinning can be well improved, the speed of weaving cannot be endless. The Jenny machine he designed could only spin twenty-six spindles at the same time.

Even so, purely in terms of quantity, the work of spinning thread in the Ming Dynasty has inadvertently been increased by him by twenty-six times.

And what about the speed of the shuttle loom?

It's a pity that the loom can't create endless miracles like the Jenny machine, although he can also increase the speed of weaving, but the efficiency of the flying shuttle loom can't be so exaggerated after all, Su Baiyi probably estimated it, about eight times.

But this is already an exaggeration.

It takes a woman about eight days to weave a piece of cloth if she weaves cloth full-time, and about a piece of cloth in a day if she uses a shuttle loom.

What is this concept?

The standard of ordinary helpers in the Ming Dynasty was about 30 Wen, basically less than one tael of silver a month.

And women are even less, only 20 wen a day, and 600 wen a month.

Then the wages of a piece of cloth include the wages of weaving, the wages of playing cotton, and the wages of spinning threads, generally speaking, the wages of weaving cloth account for eighty percent, so the wages of a finished cloth are about 200 Wen.

The cost of cotton is 30 to 40 wen a catty, and a piece of cloth is 4 catties of cotton, which is about 145 wen.

It can be calculated very simply, and the cost price of a finished cotton cloth is about 350 yuan. And that's just the direct costs, and that's not including overheads, machinery, and so on.

Therefore, after the Mu family's cloth is really listed, the price of 500 Wen is not too high.

Is the price of 500 Wen more or less?

After investigation, Su Baiyi felt that it really couldn't be considered high, because whether it was Kaifeng Mansion, Fengyang Mansion, or Bozhou Mansion in the surrounding area, the price of cloth was basically about 500 wen per horse.

The main reason why the Mu family was scolded as a dog by the people of Guide Mansion was to cut corners.

Their cloth weighs only three pounds.

In fact, when the Mu family weaves cloth, whether it is warp or weft, it is a quarter less than the cotton cloth in other places!

The cloth is too thin, so it is easy to break when washing clothes. Once it breaks, it will be bought again. In this way, a bad circle was formed, and when it harmed the people, it also brought huge benefits to the Mu family.

Therefore, when Su Baiyi was selling soap, the Mu family gritted their teeth so much.

Su Baiyi clenched his fists!

Your Mu family is still to come!

Because the efficiency of spinning thread has increased by twenty-six times, the efficiency of weaving cloth has increased by eight times, and cotton is not counted, and the workers of their own family do not have to spend much money except for eating and eating. Therefore, his salary for weaving a piece of cloth is only about one-ninth of the Mu family, and the highest is about thirty Wen.

This is terrifying, with 30 Wen labor and 160 Wen raw material costs, the cost price of an undyed white cloth is only 190 Wen.

What effect will such a four-pound white cloth have if it is sold for 300 wen in the market?

It doesn't matter if the Mu family will cry or not, Su Baiyi sat on the stool at this time, looking at the pale sky, and suddenly felt cold in his heart: If you do this, will those cloth dealers in Kaifeng Mansion, Fengyang Mansion, and Bozhou Mansion come over to beat Lao Tzu?

At that time, the person he offended was not Mu Yongjiang's family, but the cloth dealers in the entire Ming Dynasty!

But what can be done about it?

After all, the wheel of history will move forward, and those who block the progress of history may gain momentum for a while, but in the long run, they will all be crushed to the ground!

On the eve of the British Empire's industrial grunt, wasn't Hargreaves, the inventor of the Jenny machine, also rushed into his home by angry handicraft owners and destroyed the machine, and even the couple were kicked out of the Lancashire town where they had lived for generations.

But in the end?

Isn't industrial history still beginning?

Isn't history still rolling forward?

At this moment, Su Baiyi felt fearless.