However, although it felt strange, Guo Kang was not stunned for too long. He was skeptical for a moment, not knowing whether this speculation was appropriate, and he didn't know how to deal with it.

Guo Kang felt that he couldn't fight her by playing with his heart. So, after hesitating, I decided - lie flat and don't care!

She can do whatever she likes, anyway, there will be a happy and others to end up. I really can't do it, so I ran away to the East. It's not like there's nowhere to go anyway......

It is said that before Babur went to India, he was once disheartened and wanted to go to the East to join the Ming Dynasty, but he got by. It can be seen that this kind of idea is not an accident, and it should be really feasible.

Thinking of this, Guo Kang strengthened his determination to lie flat. He took out a notebook and handed it to the Great Lama Wang: "This is the plan I conceived before, Patriarch, take a look." ”

In public, he gave Lama Wang a lot of face, and the other party was also very happy, and praised again and again: "It turns out that this time it is also ready." Let's see. Guo Gongzi's plan must be very suitable. ”

"It's not really much this time, it's just a very rough calculation." Guo Kang said: "There are still many parts that need to be filled in the future when new land is developed. That's all for now. ”

Grand Lama Wang nodded, opened the booklet, and told the crowd: "This is a plan for planting cotton and weaving cotton cloth. ”

"Is this part of the church reform?" Father Andrei asked.

"Sort of." Guo Kang told him: "This is what I conceived, part of the plan to adopt the Sisters' Order. ”

Not only Father Andrew, but also the others became curious and asked him what he was going to do. And Guo Kang also explained.

"Didn't we say before that the biggest problem was how to feed so many people?" "We managed to make these people self-sufficient," he said. ”

"That's why you chose this industry, right?" Grand Lama Wang understood: "It's not bad. This is indeed a job fit for a woman. ”

"But will this feed them?" Fr. Mikhail doubted: "Weaving can only be used as a supplement to life, and most women cannot survive on it, except for a few good hands." ”

"That's because the equipment isn't working." Guo Kang told him: "As long as you make improvements, it is easy to improve efficiency." My calculations are used to prove this. ”

"Oh, improve all kinds of textile machinery, right?" Unsurprisingly, Grand Lama Wang thought again: "This should be possible. ”

"We have cotton too." Father Leo, who often makes rounds, thought for a moment and said: "On this side of Europe, there are really not many cotton growers, but it just so happens that the only large area of cotton cultivation is in Greece. So it's normal for the two to be unfamiliar. ”

"There are also plantings over there in Xiaoya." Guo Kang said: "In addition, Egypt and Syria are also important production areas. We shipped it from there, and it wasn't too much trouble. ”

"Hmm." Grand Lama Wang nodded and took notes: "This can be considered a solution...... And what about the cost of the machine? ”

"It's not too high, it's for single use, and it can be completely controlled at a level that ordinary families can afford." Guo Kang said: "As for the large ones, it depends on the address. ”

"You can design it all, right?" Grand Lama Wang asked.

"I don't need to design this, now the Ming Dynasty and Java have it." Guo Kang told him: "Of course, if I can't get it from there, I can try it myself." It shouldn't be too difficult. ”

Although some people in later generations highly admired the spinning machine as the beginning of the industrial revolution, no one knows whether this thing is necessarily related to industrialization.

The famous "Jenny Machine" was born in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, but it only had 8 spindles, and this machine didn't even need to be deliberately redesigned by Guo Kang. In fact, if the contemporaries of the Qing Dynasty who know how to see this thing, they will only sigh "I am super, Yuan!" "—because this is a Yuan Dynasty level machine.

In the Yuan Dynasty a few hundred years ago, there was a hydraulic spinning machine with 32 spindles. In fact, the number of spindles is not limited by the design and manufacturing level of the machine, but simply that the hydraulic facilities are limited by factors such as water intake and irrigation all year round, resulting in a small scale.

As for looms, the technical content is higher. Guo Kang plans to ask if he can directly find the machine of the Ming Dynasty and change it accordingly. This cotton loom is relatively good, not as lucrative as technologies such as silk jacquard, so it shouldn't be difficult to buy.

"Another advantage of cotton cloth is that the process requirements for weaving are not too high, but they are not too low." Guo Kang continued: "It is not like silk, which has particularly high requirements for professionalism, which makes it difficult for everyone to learn; But it does have technical content, so it has a certain profit and can achieve a better income. In short, it's just the right industry. ”

"If the development is perfect, the supply and sale of raw materials can be smooth, and the personnel are qualified, theoretically, it can be close to the income level of adult men. So, if you want to produce and be self-sufficient, textile is a good choice - the cultivation industry is too dependent on manual labor, and women are not very efficient in farming. Textile is also a large-scale project, suitable for organizing a large number of people and focusing on production. ”

Grand Lama Wang showed Guo Kang's calculus to several other people. Everyone agreed.

In fact, the machines at this time were far from reaching the peak level of the handicraft era.

According to the calculations of later researchers, in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the average income of a Jiangnan woman engaged in cotton weaving per working day had reached 80% of the daily income of farmers.

What is this concept?

The researchers also found records of women's labor remuneration in Songjiang County during the commune period for comparison. Even in an environment where political campaigns and administrative orders are used to forcibly pursue equality in productivity and equal pay for men and women, women engaged in the same agricultural production are paid 80 per cent of men per day.

Of course, on the side of the Purple Horde, the productivity of agriculture is not as good as in the East, so everyone has shrunk a little, and the result may still be similar. According to his estimates, the income level close to that of the adult male labor force is promising.

And the ceiling of this job is much more than that.

By the late Qing Dynasty, farmers engaged in farming worked about 305 days a year. On the other hand, peasant women in the cotton textile industry work on looms for an average of more than 200 days a year. This length of time is already relatively "professional".

The 200 days' remuneration was converted into grain, which at the price at the time could feed 1.5 Ding Zhuang for a year, and if they were forced to work overtime for the sake of livelihood, working 360 days a year, they could support 2.8 people. And the people of the time themselves said that according to the records of the officials at that time, the textile industry "one person can eat three people a day, and the one who can eat two people can eat two." ”

And when the price of cloth was relatively high, the income of weavers was even higher than that of farmers. In the height of trade, when both sides worked all year round, women who were also hired to weave cloth were paid 30 per cent more than those who worked long in the fields.

Therefore, whether it is income or professional level, this industry has huge room for development.

(End of chapter)