The move of Jiangnan cotton merchants lacks a long-term vision in Han Gang's view.

It should be a habit that has been cultivated for many years, but all the goods given to the government and the merchants in Jiangnan have always been inferior.

It is also related to the folk customs, just like the silk collected as taxes in the two Zhejiang and Liangjiang areas, many of which are so thin that they can be pierced with one finger, almost the same as medical cotton gauze. But silk can be made very lightly, but it is as rough as gauze and linen, and it cannot be said. The case of the cotton cloth is similar. The imperial court wanted to levy cotton cloth as tribute, so the cotton merchants in Jiangnan naturally used their past experience.

After this kind of thing becomes a habit, even the cotton cloth sold outside will be manipulated. In order to reduce costs and compete with Longyou cotton cloth for price, it has been seen that Jiangnan cotton manufacturers have begun to cut corners in the past two years.

And Longyou cotton, the reputation for quality came out. That's why it can be sold more expensive than Jiangnan cotton cloth of the same grade.

The brand is something that needs to be maintained all year round. From an individual point of view, it is understandable to try to avoid harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, but in terms of the overall interests of the region, if everyone does this, the reputation of Jiangnan cotton cloth will be mostly ruined.

If the direct competitors are the same, the cotton cloth business can continue for a long time, but here in Longxi, Han Ganger mentions that the quality should be paid attention to, and the cloth handed over is of good quality, for what? Isn't it just to ensure Longyou's monopoly interests in cotton cloth?

Today, the cotton dispute between Longyou and Jiangnan has reached Han Gang's original goal. Even if it is exactly the same cotton cloth, with the brand of Longyou, it is dozens of dollars more expensive than Jiangnan cotton cloth, and these price differences are reputation.

"If the cotton cloth in Jiangnan is made into a small coat, no one can see it when you wear it inside. If you make an outer robe, you still have your own cloth. ”

Han Gang twisted his fingers several times, and intuitively felt that it should not be Jiangnan cloth, but he couldn't tell whether the clothes on his hands were his own or not.

If it weren't for the fact that it had become part of the Yulu issued by the imperial court, the cotton cloth in Jiangnan would not have appeared in the Han family. The family is one of the largest producers of cotton cloth in Longyou, and of course the Han family will not buy cotton cloth from other people's families, but the cotton cloth sent by the imperial court as part of Yulu can only be accepted.

Cotton cloth collected from the south, whether in the army or among officials, no one wanted it. Piled up in the warehouse, it will only become a red letter on the ledger in the end, and it will lose a lot of money. In the end, Han Gang decided that this batch of cotton cloth would be distributed in the proportion of half Shaanxi cloth and half Jiangnan cloth as the official's money. Including the prime minister, none of the important ministers escaped.

After taking it home, Wang Yi's family has always disliked waste, and he did not hesitate to use it to tailor, and Han Gang also specially asked people to make clothes with Jiangnan cloth for himself, but whether he did it or not, he didn't care about it after that. But if it is done for him, his wife, concubines and children are indispensable, but he will not pass on the loss of the money to the servants below.

"These two clothes are not Longxili cloth, but they are also woven."

Yun Niang is responsible for miscellaneous things such as clothes for the four seasons at home, although the level of governing the family is not good, and she usually relies on Wang Yi to mention some points and Zhou Nan to help, but her vision of looking at clothes is stronger than Han Gang, who doesn't care about family affairs. Zhou Nan and Yan Suxin can't compare.

"Not from Longxi?" Han Gang tugged at the fabric, not seeing any difference.

"The cloth woven from cotton in Longxi is not like this, but it is not Jiangnan cloth either, and Jiangnan cloth is almost all hand-woven, which is much worse."

Longxi's cotton weaving machinery has been improved every year under the supervision of Han Gang. The current level of development is no longer the same as in the past, and you can imitate it after a few glances and then ponder it. Textile machines that use a large number of steel parts are in stock, and they cannot be imitated without a little technical level.

"Maybe it's something from somewhere else." Han Gang said. With cotton cloth as a tribute, there are not only Longyou and Jiangnan at present, but there are few other places.

"There are many people who grow cotton in Longyou and Jiangnan, where else to plant?" Yan Suxin asked.

"There are many, there are races in Jinghu, Shuzhong, and Hedong, and there are all in Liao. But the one that grows a lot is Huaidong," Han Gang handed the clothes to Yun Niang, turned around and sat down: "Huaidong is quite suitable for growing cotton." In the early years, people from Haizhou, Lianshuijun, Chuzhou, and Taizhou went to buy land to plant, and cotton was not very picky......"

He recalled: "I remember that one of the chambers of commerce bought 60 hectares of land in Yancheng County two years ago, and this year is the third or fourth year, and the harvest is almost half of the same 60 hectares of Jiangnan cotton fields. ”

"So much?" "The harvest is so bad?"

Yan Suxin and Yun Niang spoke almost at the same time.

"When it comes to harvest, it's still the most in Jiangnan," Han Gang said to Yun Niang, "Longyou is much worse, fortunately, there are more places in Longyou." The situation in Huaidong is similar, not as much as the harvest in Jiangnan, I remember that it is similar to Longyou. ”

Longxi is a new place, an average family can have thirty or fifty acres of cotton fields, when the farm is busy, you can also get relatively cheap hired labor from the side of Fan, large families often have hundreds of hectares, in addition to planting and harvesting, the manual use is less, so in the end, the income from planting cotton in Longxi can be comparable to that of Jiangnan.

turned around and said to Yan Suxin: "I bought a lot of fields, because no one planted them, they were all wasteland, so they were cheap." ”

Huaidong is close to the sea, and the land is saline-alkali, which is not conducive to cultivation, so it is common to see large areas of wasteland in Cangzhou in Hebei, and the land price is extremely cheap. However, cotton is tolerant to salinity, and it is not on the edge of the beach, the ground is all salt water, and almost half of the wasteland in the coastal military states of Huainan East Road can be planted with cotton. After buying those wastelands, a fire burned the weeds, and there was a layer of good fertilizer for the fields.

The first crop of cotton had a good harvest. However, after last autumn, there were more and more competitors who went to Huaidong to buy land. In the Yongqin Chamber of Commerce, more than a dozen of them have gone there. They originally wanted to go with Feng Congyi, hoping to borrow Han Gang's light, but Feng Congyi politely declined.

"Now the trend of planting cotton in Huaidong is gradually rising, and when the locals in Huaidong start to plant cotton, the competition in the market will be even more fierce. Jiangnan may not be able to compare. ”

"Does it matter if you want to be at home?" Zhou Nan asked softly.

"It's okay, anyway, there are other industries at home, and cotton doesn't have to worry about not being able to sell, just make less money." Han Gang smiled, and pinched Yun Niang's delicate cheek, "Your fat powder money is always indispensable,"

"Official!" "Third brother!" Zhou Nan and Yun Niang said angrily at the same time.

Yan Suxin glanced at Han Gang, "Official, do you want to go to Huaidong to buy land?" ”

Han Gang shook his head, "You can't eat the bread alone, people can't take all the benefits, right?" It's pretty good now. ”

At the beginning of the cotton fields in Jiangnan, Han Gang was completely able to step in, but he couldn't help it. Although Huaidong is good, he still doesn't need it.

Han Gang picked up the newly made robe again, and the delicate touch always alerted him, and the current advantage was not enough.

Jiangnan cotton cloth in the feel and texture, can not be compared with Longyou's cotton, coupled with intentional or unintentional cost reduction, so that Jiangnan cotton cloth has always been unable to compete with Longyou. can be compared from another angle, the quality of Jiangnan cotton cloth is actually much better than at the beginning.

The current Longyou cotton cloth mainly relies on technical advantages to bring cost advantages. But technology will spread, that is, now all the Yongqin Chamber of Commerce are keeping this secret, but Jiangnan cotton merchants want to buy a person, and they can always come up with a suitable price.

Now the Jiangnan cotton merchants are bent on how to squeeze the weavers and produce more cotton cloth every day. The style of the capitalists is now not at all lost to the same kind in another world a few hundred years later. At least Han Gang didn't see which one took the safety of workers into account.

Just as he was about to speak, Han Gang's heart suddenly moved. I got up and walked to the door and looked into the courtyard outside the door, "It's raining." ”

……………………

"It's raining."

Listening to the sound of rain outside the window and the exclamations of pedestrians, Wang Yi quietly called a line from the car window.

The cold snap brought by the wind and rain suddenly penetrated into the carriage. And the noise outside also became louder.

Wang Yi observed the wind and rain outside through the car window, but under the dark night, the wind and rain were mixed, and even the lanterns on the side of the road walked in the wind and rain, and he couldn't see the scenery on both sides of the road, and he couldn't tell where he had arrived.

finally said goodbye to the reluctant sixth aunt, said goodbye to the sixth uncle and his wife, and then hurriedly got in the car and rushed home

Fortunately, I heard the bell, and then there was news that the Empress Dowager had gone to the immortal, so she escaped.

"Where?" Lifting the front window, Wang Yi asked.

"If you go back to Madame, you'll be in the big library."

As the carriage passed by the Tokyo Library, the noise outside the window immediately rose by another number. Looking through the crack in the window, several scholars ran by the side of the road, all the way to the Great Library

The red brick walls used to be the main exterior of the Great Library, but in the last two years, it has been painted with lime, and it doesn't look like an ordinary building.

Since the advent of the Great Library, scholars have had one more place to hang out, and it can be said to be the best. If you have money, you can enter, and if you don't have money, everyone is generally welcome.

The large library was open every day until the beginning of the second watch, and now it has become a place for scholars to compete and study. The library has a collection of 200,000 volumes of various books, not only the books that have been circulated to the outside world, but also the "Shufu Yuangui", "Taiping Guangji", "Taiping Yulan", and "Wenyuan Yinghua", which have been left from the Taizong and Zhenzong periods, and now have become the target of people competing to copy. In the past, most of the engravings were already broken, and now there is no other way to solve the problem except for step-by-step copying.