What is good at the top will be very bad at the bottom.In any case, as the emperor, Zhu Youxiao's commendation of some works and people of this era did inspire many people to continue to actively create in the direction that Zhu Youxiao wanted.Feng Menglong and Ling Mengchu left the capital because they were encouraged by the emperor in the Qianqing Palace, and prepared to write the "three words and two beats" that had already been drafted.Yang Tingyun, with the encouragement of the emperor, began to plan a trial to standardize the pinyin of Chinese characters according to the official dialect of the Ming Dynasty.Ruan Dacheng, who served as an official at Chongsi, also decided to give full play to his drama expertise and devote himself to writing scripts, and did not only think about other ways to obtain official positions as in history.Zhang Dai also had the idea of creating Tao'an Mengyi in advance.Song Yingxing also began to write a book called Tiangong Kaiwu based on his years of experience in various miscellaneous studies.Zhu Youxiao only spent a few silver coins and a dozen or so loose official positions, so that the Ming Dynasty's transformation career began to show signs of exploding.The change in the apocalypse may not be so obvious.But the economic changes are already very noticeable.With the end of the Jiangnan riots, and after the failure of the conspiracy of the Jiangnan gentry to prevent the Xu's cotton yarn factory from becoming bigger and the government-run textile industry failed, the Xu's cotton yarn factory was not only able to keep it, but also successfully changed its name to the Daming Cotton Yarn Bureau.In addition, Zhu Youxiao also ordered the establishment of the Songjiang Weaving Bureau, and the land of the Weaving Bureau was the land of some gentry who became officials after confiscating it.In this way, the official textile industry of Daming officially began to kick off in Songjiang Mansion, Jiangnan.The population in the south of the Yangtze River is prosperous, and there are a large number of weavers and yarn workers in Yingtian, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Songjiang, Huzhou, Wuxi and other towns in the prefecture.Therefore, the Daming Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau also recruited a large number of weavers and yarn workers after expanding the scale, and successfully expanded the scale of survival.Next, the Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau began to take the initiative to reduce the price of cotton cloth and silk, so as to achieve the purpose of Daming's textile industry to occupy more foreign markets and expand domestic demand.After all, the current spinning machine of the Cotton Yarn Bureau of the Ming Dynasty is already a machine, with 20 spindles that can work at the same time, and the loom has also greatly improved the weaving efficiency and quality because of the realization of shuttle technology.Therefore, the Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau have long had the basis for reducing the price of cotton cloth and silk.However, the reduction of the price of cotton and silk by the Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau will undoubtedly lead to the bankruptcy of many families who make a living from the production of homespun cloth.On the one hand, he asked the Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau to improve the treatment of yarn workers and weavers, so as to attract these bankrupt people to work in the weaving factory, and on the other hand, he also asked the government to encourage and help the bankrupt people in these families to work in the Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau or engage in other work.However, the most challenging problem here is not the bankruptcy of many weaver families, but the problem that most of the weavers in the weavers are women, and these women will still be subject to secular and ritual constraints when they want to leave the family and go to the factory.Fortunately, the etiquette of the Ming Dynasty is not as strict as before, and in the south of the Yangtze River, it has been a common phenomenon for merchants to wear silk and women to go out.
Many families are still unable to resist such economic benefits and have had to abandon stereotypes and allow their women to enter factories where only women are workers.The social foundation of traditional science is being destroyed little by little.In any case, it is impossible to prevent the emergence of advanced spinning and weaving technologies that will lead to a decline in the price of cotton and silk.Either wait for hundreds of years to be used by foreign countries to reduce the price of textile products in the form of "foreign cloth", or it can only be the government-run textile industry now controlled by the imperial court to reduce the price of textile products.The latter is undoubtedly worse than the former, after all, the latter will have to take care of the interests of the bankrupt for the sake of his own domination.Therefore, Zhu Youxiao did not regret doing so.Although many people are still dissatisfied with this because of this.The most gratifying change brought about by the reduction of cotton cloth and silk prices by the Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau is that a large number of foreign businessmen began to come to Daming to buy textiles.These foreign businessmen no longer buy cotton cloth from Korea, Japan, Ryukyu, and Nanyang Manila, but only buy textiles from the Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau.Naturally, the profits of the Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau rose sharply as a result.Silver from the Americas and Australia flowed into the Ming Dynasty in greater quantities than ever before.In addition, with the decline in the price of cotton cloth and silk in the Ming Dynasty, especially the decline in the price of cotton cloth, more and more ordinary people wear cotton clothes in this cold winter, and many people who can only wear patch clothes have also begun to have a complete set of clothes.However, when Zhu Youxiao lowered the prices of cotton cloth and silk, he asked the government-run Cotton Yarn Bureau and Weaving Bureau to raise the prices of domestic raw silk and cotton.Because Zhu Youxiao wanted to increase the income of the common people in this way, after all, the production of raw silk and cotton requires mulberry fields and cotton fields, and the current taxation of the Ming Dynasty is mainly to collect land taxes.At the same time, Zhu Youxiao also increased the income of the common people in China in this way to make up for the losses of some people who produced homespun cloth."
Let the price of cotton cloth and silk fall, the price of raw silk and cotton rises, so that the income of the people of Daming rises, but the price of goods falls, so that the people can live a happier life, so that it can be regarded as a prosperous dynasty, but the price of cotton and silk is not enough, the price of food and salt can not be too high, so that the people can afford it, especially grain."
Zhu Youxiao was in the political hall at this time, and the other party talked about the matter."
Your Majesty, in the opinion of the ministers, I am afraid that the grain should not be too cheap, otherwise it will hurt the peasants."
Fang Congzhe replied.Fang Congzhe said that the harm to the peasants mainly affects the interests of the landlords, after all, ordinary peasants and tenants do not have enough grain to eat, where will the income be affected because the grain price is too low.And Zhu Youxiao didn't expose it, just smiled and said: "It's not too low, but it can't be too high, you plan to say that Songjiang Mansion is officially open, as the second area to open the sea after the Moon Port of the Ming Dynasty, allowing domestic and foreign merchant ships to trade here, and the Ministry of Household Affairs has formulated a settlement system and road introduction system for foreign merchants in Songjiang Mansion, as well as a tariff system, and the West Factory has set up a Songjiang Tariff Lifting Division in the area, requiring them to trade and pay taxes in silver coins, and the Cotton Yarn Bureau and the Weaving Bureau must take this lead, With the Baoquan Bureau setting up a Baoquan branch in Songjiang Prefecture, the Eagle Ocean Currency of the Foreign Merchant Ship must be exchanged here for my Ming silver coins before they can be traded and pay customs duties!
Otherwise, you will be ordered to be driven away!
At that time, it will be announced that all grain imports will be temporarily exempted from tariffs in order to curb the grain prices that are still rising in the country, and when grain prices fall, the grain entry tax will be levied or even raised. ”"Obey the order!"
Fang Congzhe replied.Therefore, next, the Ming Dynasty took advantage of the large number of foreign merchant ships gathered in the Songjiang area, officially opened the port in the official name of Songjiang Prefecture, and took this opportunity to forcibly implement the policy of unified currency and open the system of tariff collection.Naturally, the foreign merchant ships were dissatisfied with this.