After ten years of accompanying me in my studies, the entire court begged me to shut up.

Yang Chunhua was taken aback, not understanding why he was asking this.

But he answered truthfully: "Our guild has more than a dozen large and small businesses and more than twenty shops, mainly dealing in cotton cloth and silk. In the capital, almost everyone who does the cloth business is in the guild."

What is your annual turnover?

"It's roughly between 300,000 and 500,000 taels. In a good year, you can earn more, and in a bad year, you'll earn less."

Yang Shen nodded, then asked, "How are the profits?"

Yang Chunhua said, "The profit margin is roughly 20% to 30%, but there are also times when we lose money."

Yang Shen was somewhat surprised: "Oh? How come you lost money?"

Yang Chunhua sighed softly, her expression complex.

"My dear nephew, you may not know this, but this business looks glamorous, but it's actually quite difficult to run!"

"Uncle, please don't be in a hurry. Sit down and talk slowly. Have some tea!"

Yang Chunhua sat down again in the chair, picked up the teacup and took a sip.

"Our business is affected by upstream suppliers. The price of raw silk in Jiangnan varies from year to year. Sometimes there's a bumper harvest, so the price is low; sometimes there's a poor harvest, so the price is high. We source our silk from Jiangnan, and it takes at least a month to transport it here. In that month, the price can change several times. Who can say for sure?"

"And then there's cotton cloth. The largest cotton-producing areas in the country are Henan and Shandong, and the most famous cotton-spinning area is Songjiang Prefecture in Southern Zhili. The best cotton is given priority to the south. After all, there are tens of thousands of cotton-spinning households in Songjiang, working day and night. They collect cotton like tigers are eating food, and there's never enough. Our workshops in the north can't compete with them and can only pick up the leftovers."

Yang Shen nodded and listened attentively.

Yang Chunhua continued, "Downstream shipments are also unstable. In some warm years, winter clothes don't sell and end up in warehouses. The following year, the styles are outdated, and they're even harder to sell. In other years, it gets cold early, and people buy everything before our goods even arrive. By the time our goods arrive, it's already warm."

He sighed again and shook his head.

"So, although this business looks like it has a lot of turnover, it's actually very stressful. Throughout the year, the big managers in the guild can steadily earn a few thousand taels, while the small managers are considered lucky if they earn a few hundred taels."

Yang Shen listened, seemingly lost in thought.

After a long pause, he suddenly said, "Uncle, didn't you ever think about expanding and strengthening the business?"

Yang Chunhua paused for a moment, then waved his hand with a wry smile.

"My dear nephew, you don't understand. The conditions for commerce and industry in the North are far worse than in the South. If it weren't for the capital, under the emperor's nose, very few people would be willing to do business here."

Yang Shen asked, "You said it's far from perfect, but where exactly is the difference?"

Yang Chunhua counted on her fingers: "The first thing is the origin of the raw materials. The closer to the origin, the lower the transportation cost, and the lower the cost. Songjiang Prefecture can use canal boats, but here, the transportation cost is much higher than theirs. When we transport a cart of cotton, there are fees for the porter, the cart, the lock, and the broker's commission. After all these deductions, the cost goes up by 20%."

"The second thing is the textile craftsmanship. The weaving techniques there are sophisticated and passed down through generations. Even seven or eight-year-old children know how to make seams. Most of our workers here were brought in from there to learn, and they're considered good if they learn about 70-80% of it. The cloth they weave is a bit narrower and the warp and weft are a bit less, so when it's sold in the market, people can tell at a glance whether it's northern or southern cloth."

"The third thing is the style and pattern. Whatever clothes and bedding are fashionable, the South will be the first to follow, and it will take us another year or two to catch up. We are always one step behind. The year before last, a kind of 'falling flowers and flowing water' pattern was popular in Nanjing. The ladies in the capital were eagerly waiting for it. By the time our goods arrived, they no longer cared about it."

"Beijing has the Imperial Textile Bureau. We can't do business with the palace, so we can only do business with the common people, which is even more difficult. The craftsmen employed by the Textile Bureau are all top-notch workers transferred from Nanjing. They weave cloud brocade with intricate patterns. What can we compare with?"

Yang Shen listened carefully, then said, "What you just said, Uncle, is that cotton is mainly produced in Shandong and Henan. If you're transporting it from the production areas to the capital via the Grand Canal, the distance is roughly the same, right?"

Yang Chunhua said, "It looks about the same, but the canal becomes turbulent and narrow when it reaches Wuqing County, making it inconvenient to navigate by boat. We need to take the land route, which increases the transportation cost."

Yang Shen neither confirmed nor denied this, and then said, "As for textile technology and mass production, if we have new technology, could we replace Songjiang Prefecture and become the new textile center?"

Yang Chunhua was taken aback for a moment, then shook her head and chuckled.

"My dear nephew, the cotton textile industry in Songjiang Prefecture has been established for many years. They started doing it in the Southern Song Dynasty, which is at least several hundred years ago. How could they possibly surpass us just like that? Such a thing is best left as a dream."

Yang Shen looked at him seriously: "What if I have a way?"

Yang Chunhua waved his hand: "Impossible. We in the North have nothing; what do we have to compare with them?"

Yang Shen then asked, "Uncle, what do you think is the core of textile technology?"

Yang Chunhua thought for a moment and replied, "The craftsmanship, the equipment... and the weavers."

Yang Shen pressed further: "What is the most crucial element of it all?"

Yang Chunhua pondered for a moment: "Equipment! With good equipment, even a village woman with no basic skills can spin good thread. Without good equipment, no matter how good your skills are, it's all for nothing. I've seen large workshops in Songjiang, where a good loom can produce one and a half bolts of cloth a day. The old-fashioned looms we use here can barely produce one bolt a day."

Yang Shen nodded: "If that's the case, then if we improve the looms and spinning wheels, can't we replace them?"

Yang Chunhua couldn't help but laugh, a laugh tinged with helplessness.

"My dear nephew, these spinning wheels and looms have existed since the Eastern Han Dynasty, and they have been used for over a thousand years. The technology is now extremely sophisticated. The spinning wheel is still the same spinning wheel, with a single spindle, operated by hand and foot, and it hasn't changed in thousands of years. The loom is still the same loom, requiring you to throw the shuttle, receive the shuttle, bend over, and straighten your body. A weaver has to throw the shuttle more than ten thousand times a day. Over the past thousands of years, there have been many skillful people. If it could be changed, it would have been changed long ago."

He sighed again and continued, "I know you're known as a child prodigy. You passed the imperial examination at the age of thirteen, and the whole capital is talking about your photographic memory. But everyone has their own expertise, and textiles are not for the imperial examinations. This is not your forte."

Yang Shen didn't speak, but stood up and walked to the desk.

He took out a piece of paper, picked up a brush, dipped it in ink, and started drawing on the paper.

Yang Chunhua sat in a chair, holding a teacup, and it was unclear what he was planning to do.

A moment later, Yang Shen put down his pen and handed over the paper.

"Uncle, take a look at this."

Yang Chunhua took the paper and looked down at it.

With just one glance, my hand trembled, and I almost dropped the teacup.

He hurriedly placed the teacup back on the table, held the paper in both hands, and examined it carefully.