Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 242: Old Zhu asks about the economy of silk and cotton, and asks Japan to switch from rice to mulberry [Please subscribe]

"Since the Jinling Textile Factory was established, we've added textile machines twice in the past six months. We now have 100 weaving machines, capable of producing 3,000 bolts of cotton cloth a day! If we keep working non-stop for a month, we can produce 90,000 bolts of cotton cloth!"

"As for the cotton yarn it produces, it's even more. Our factory only consumes 20% to 30% of the cotton yarn for weaving."

"The Ministry of Revenue, seeing how effective steam textile machinery was, requested that the Jinling Textile Mill be expanded, and that a steam spinning mill and a steam silk weaving mill be opened. They also requested similar textile mills be opened in Suzhou, Hangzhou, and other places."

"Do you think we should approve this?"

So that’s what happened.

When Liu Kuan heard that Lao Zhu was asking questions about the economy and people's livelihood, he immediately became more serious.

After a moment's thought, he asked, "Your Majesty, how are the cotton yarn and cotton cloth produced by the Jinling Textile Factory being sold now?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Biao and said, "Biao'er, you are in charge of most of the affairs of the Ministry of Revenue, so you can talk about this matter."

"Yes," Zhu Biao replied, and then said, "Regarding the sales of Jinling Textile Factory's products, we have naturally followed my brother-in-law's original suggestion - 30% of the excess cotton yarn will be sold to private weaving workshops in the capital, and 70% will be distributed to other provinces."

"As for cotton cloth, 10% is sold in the capital, and the remaining 90% is sold overseas."

In fact, the Ming Dynasty does not have the administrative name "province" now, but it did exist in the former Yuan Dynasty. Liu Kuan would often use "province" instead of "province", so Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao and others also used "province" in daily conversations, and in official documents it was naturally still "so-and-so's provincial administration".

After hearing what Zhu Biao said, Liu Kuan asked, "Has the court sent anyone to investigate the price fluctuations of cotton yarn and cotton cloth in the capital and other provinces over the past six months?"

Zhu Biao said, "I did send people to the capital to conduct a detailed investigation, but the other provinces just asked officials to report, and I only got a general idea."

"Over the past six months, the prices of cotton yarn and cotton cloth in Beijing have fallen, with the price of cotton yarn falling significantly."

"The prices of cotton yarn and cotton cloth have also fallen in the local areas, with the biggest drop in Zhili and Jiangnan, but the decline is not as great as in the capital."

At this point, Zhu Biao frowned. "Actually, I'm quite puzzled by this. Although the Jinling Textile Factory produces a lot of cotton yarn and cloth every month, not much is sold to the people of Ming Dynasty. Moreover, Ming Dynasty has such a large population, how could the price of cotton yarn and cloth fall?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Highness has overlooked one point. The Ming Dynasty has been peaceful for over a decade, and the imperial court has been vigorously promoting cotton planting and cotton cloth. Even without the emergence of the Jinling Textile Factory, the prices of cotton yarn and cotton cloth in the Ming Dynasty would have slowly fallen."

"The emergence of Jinling Textile Factory has only accelerated the decline in prices."

"From this, we can imagine that if the imperial court aggressively expanded steam textile mills and silk weaving mills, it would inevitably cause the prices of domestic textiles such as cotton yarn, cotton cloth, and silk to continue to fall."

"Once steam textile production rapidly expands to a certain scale, it will face another problem, which is the insufficient supply of raw materials."

"As for cotton, the fields of the Ming Dynasty are definitely still mainly used to grow grain, and cotton planting can only take a back seat."

"Even if we open up new territories, we will also increase the population, so we still have to first consider feeding the new population."

"Increasing raw silk production in a short period of time is even more difficult. After all, mulberry trees don't grow in a year, and silkworm farmers need time to cultivate them."

"Therefore, I believe that the court needs to control the speed of expansion of steam textile production within the next five years."

"Considering that steam engines also require a certain degree of confidentiality, it would be best to limit the establishment of steam textile mills to the capital and Zhili in the next few years. It is best not to allow local governments to establish them, let alone open them to the public."

"As a result, the rapid expansion of steam textile production has had a significant impact on the Ming Dynasty's domestic textile industry, causing prices of cotton and silk textiles to fall too quickly. Problems such as insufficient cotton and raw silk supply, even if they still exist, will not erupt too violently."

"Of course, from a long-term perspective, the court should be making relevant plans now. For example, which areas are suitable for growing more cotton, which areas are suitable for planting more mulberry trees, cultivating silkworm farmers, and so on."

After hearing Liu Kuan's words, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao and Zhu Di all fell into deep thought.

After a while, Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "What do you think about allowing Korea and Japan to grow more cotton?"

"All those videos and movies Lao Zhu watched before were worth it. He actually came up with the idea of ​​asking other countries to grow cotton for the Ming Dynasty. He's really adamant."

Liu Kuan sighed inwardly and said, "Your Majesty, neither Korea nor Japan is actually a good cotton producing area, especially Japan. Therefore, even if cotton is grown outside the Ming Dynasty, I do not recommend these two places."

Old Zhu immediately asked, "Then tell me, which places outside the Ming Dynasty are suitable for growing cotton?"

"The Western Regions and India." Liu Kuan named two places. "Before technology developed to a higher level, the Western Regions were not suitable for growing crops. Instead, they were suitable for growing cotton. In later generations, the Western Regions, and Central Asia further west, became world-renowned high-quality cotton producing areas."

"As for India, after it became a British colony, it has been mainly engaged in cotton cultivation. The British bought the cotton grown by Indians and dumped cloth on them, along with other industrial products, in order to plunder India's wealth."

"Western Regions, India." Old Zhu recited the two place names and pondered. "We must definitely reclaim the Western Regions, but only after destroying the Northern Yuan Dynasty, or even after conquering Southeast Asia."

"As for India, we have to wait until the Ming Dynasty has established a foothold in Southeast Asia before we can exert a certain influence."

Liu Kuan took the initiative and said, "In fact, Your Majesty can first use trade routes to influence the Western Regions and India, and even make them the cotton producing areas of the Ming Dynasty."

"Business?" Zhu Yuanzhang became very interested when he heard it.

Although he had placed increasing emphasis on commercial development in recent years, his understanding of commerce remained limited, and he naturally desired to learn more about it. Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty could send merchants to the Western Regions to promote cotton cultivation—for example, by having them purchase cotton at prices higher than the market price in the Western Regions, or even by signing pre-purchase contracts with local residents, guaranteeing they would purchase their cotton next year."

"In this way, within two or three years, many people in the Western Regions will surely hear about this and plant cotton."

"While purchasing cotton, we can also allow merchants to dump Ming Dynasty's low-priced cotton cloth, silk, paper, salt, sugar, glass and other goods to the Western Regions and Central Asia."

"In this way, even if merchants purchase cotton at high prices in the Western Regions, they can still make a considerable profit."

"As long as the imperial court requires merchants going to the Western Regions to purchase cotton, and even sends troops to protect their entry, merchants will inevitably flock to it for the sake of profit."

Zhu Yuanzhang drummed his fingers on the imperial desk and smiled. "I understand. The principle here is similar to how we used salt permits to encourage merchants to transport grain to the border areas, right?"

“Yes, there are some similarities.”

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed again and said, "Then we should be able to send merchants to India and use similar trade tactics there."

Liu Kuan bowed, "Your Majesty is wise."

Hearing this, Zhu Di on the side was secretly worried.

"I want to conquer all of India and establish the Kingdom of Yan. If India becomes the origin of the Ming Dynasty, what will happen to my Great Yan?"

Zhu Di knew that perhaps during his lifetime, the State of Yan would not be affected by the vicious business scheme that Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Kuan had just agreed upon, but what about the future?

"Let's take it one step at a time." In the end, this was the only way he could comfort himself.

At this time, Liu Kuan said again: "Your Majesty, although Japan is not suitable for growing cotton, it has no problem growing mulberry trees and cultivating silkworms."

"In the late Qing Dynasty, after Japan underwent the Meiji Restoration and embarked on the path of industrialization, its raw silk production even surpassed that of China, becoming the world's largest raw silk exporter at the time. This shows its potential as a raw silk production area."

"Therefore, I suggest that Your Majesty call on merchants to go to Japan to purchase raw silk, encourage the Japanese people to plant more mulberry trees, and even induce some Japanese feudal lords to implement the policy of 'replacing rice with mulberry trees' in their territories."

"Let Japan 'switch rice to mulberry trees'?" Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes lit up when he heard this. He immediately thought of the many advantages of this plan and couldn't help but slap his thigh and laughed, "Brilliant! This plan is really brilliant!"

Zhu Biao frowned upon hearing this and said, "Father, according to the intelligence sent back by the Guangming Guards, Japan now has a population of over 10 million. Due to the limited agricultural level, famine occurs from time to time in the country."

"If we induce them to switch from rice to mulberry, won't Japan's famine problem become even more serious?"

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and said, "Biao'er, why have you become so stupid today? Japan is facing a serious famine. Wouldn't that be a perfect opportunity for us to annex their population?"

"When famine strikes, prices will drop. We can then have merchants transport grain to Japan and help them 'immigrate.' Japan will import grain and hand over some of the victims to Ming merchants for overseas migration. The famine in Japan will naturally ease."

"And the Japanese men who 'migrated' overseas could help us reclaim wasteland in Southeast Asia and, incidentally, change the bloodline of the local natives."

"Women who 'migrated' from Japan can become wives or concubines for our Ming soldiers and bear children."

"This matter will be primarily handled by our Ming Dynasty private merchants and the Japanese feudal lords and daimyo. This will achieve our original goal of utilizing the Japanese population without requiring the imperial court to intervene personally. It's simply killing three birds with one stone!"

After listening to Zhu Yuanzhang's explanation, Zhu Biao smiled bitterly.

He didn't become stupid just now, he just couldn't bear the thought of many people dying from famine.

Now, according to what Zhu Yuanzhang said, although not many people will die from famine in Japan, allowing merchants to sell their population is still not in line with the Confucian way of benevolence and righteousness.

Since it was Liu Kuan who proposed this plan, Zhu Biao couldn't help but look over. Seeing Liu Kuan's calm expression, he suddenly remembered the Japanese invasion of China in later generations. So he sighed and didn't say any more about this matter.

At this time, Zhu Di said: "Father, if this is the case, won't our expedition to Japan be greatly delayed?"

Whether it is to let Japan change from rice to mulberry, or to let Japanese feudal lords, daimyo and Ming merchants cooperate to traffic in Japanese people, it will take ten years.

This obviously contradicts the Ming Dynasty's plan to invade Japan before the unification of North and South Japan.

Zhu Yuanzhang stood up and walked down the steps, pondering, "The policy of replacing rice with mulberry trees should be easily implemented in the Southern Dynasty of Japan, but it will be difficult to implement in the Northern Dynasty."

"Ashikaga Yoshimitsu is also a prominent figure of his time, and the Ashikaga shogunate has strong control over the Northern Dynasty. He will definitely stop us from implementing this plan."

"If that's the case, our Ming Dynasty's conquest will not be delayed, but will be advanced."

Zhu Di was puzzled for a moment and asked, "Why is this?"

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(End of this chapter)