I

   Chapter 599 596 [Social Conditions]

  How does the Netherlands repair diplomatic relations with Mata Ram?

   Fight first!

  Sultan Radeng Langsang of Matalam, can be described as a great talent. He resisted the Dutch invasion externally, developed law, culture, calendar, and economy internally, and expanded the country to its full glory. However, the sultan died last year, around the same time as the Dutch governor Van Diemen died of illness.

  Successor to Sultan Amang Gutra I, he likes luxury and cruelty.

  The strategy of the Netherlands is very simple, let the warships continue to plunder the opponent's trade fleet. Although Matalam is based on Java Island, its territory includes many islands. Once the fleet suffers a huge loss, the domestic inter-island trade will be over. Not only will the economy suffer heavy losses, but the central government’s rule over the islands will also weaken.

   Coupled with the fact that the current Sudan is greedy for pleasure and economic downturn, it is inevitable to increase the exploitation of the people.

  In this way, an uprising will break out in Matalan, and the Netherlands will jump out to help Sudan counter the rebellion, and then tie Sudan to a Dutch chariot.

   In this way, wouldn’t it be possible to establish friendly diplomacy with Matalam?

  Historically, this is what the Netherlands did. The rebel army once captured the capital. The Netherlands, on the other hand, not only controlled the current Sudan, but also waged three wars of succession to the throne, dividing Matalam into two, and both countries became vassals of the Netherlands.

  Looking at the United Kingdom at this time, it is extremely jealous of the Batavia colony of the Netherlands, and also wants to build a large commercial city on Java Island.

  Thus, the British also set their sights on the country of Matalam, and coincidentally joined with the Netherlands to rob Mataram's merchant ships in a cold-hearted manner.

  In less than two months, facing the double aggression of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the inter-island trade of Matalam directly collapsed. Seeing this situation, the Banten Kingdom actually sent troops to invade Mataram, and Java Island fell into the flames of war, and a large number of war prisoners were sold to China.

  These captives, many of whom are whites—some nobles from Matalan, are descendants of Arab merchants.

  Especially noble girls, first sold to Batavia and Banten, where there are manors of Chinese merchants. Chinese businessmen invited scholars from the former Ming Dynasty to teach these noble girls to speak Chinese, and also taught them piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. After a year or two, they could pretend to be Persian girls and transport them back to China to sell at super high prices.

  Colonies, where evil breeds.

  After the Matalan rebel army appeared, the rebel army also joined the slave trade. They stormed towns, plundered noble goods, and captured noble women. No matter what skin color it is, the richer it is, the fairer its skin color, and the higher the price it sells to Chinese merchants.

  The poor and crazy Spaniards are also expanding the slave trade. The natives of the southern archipelago of the Philippines, whoever does not convert to Christianity, will face Spanish attacks, and piles of prisoners of war will be sold to China.

  Then, the price of slaves collapsed, and low-level slaves could be bought in Macau with only one or two silver dollars.

  …

  Songjiang Prefecture, Huating County.

  Liu Chuanzong couldn't get along in the Nanjing police system. The emperor knew this well and appointed him to the Metropolitan Procuratorate as a clean government official.

  Although he is only the lowest-level clean government official, starting from the ninth rank, but compared to the previous small patrolmen, he is already a carp jumping the dragon's gate.

   It was only two months after being transferred to the Metropolitan Procuratorate. After getting familiar with the work, Liu Chuanzong went to Songjiang Mansion with him.

  This time, we don’t investigate official corruption, but understand the situation of the textile industry in the Jiangnan area, which is a special task arranged by the emperor. Not only the clerks of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, but also Xu Ying's black-clothed guards.

   "A few angels, please!" Xu Zhiyuan smiled.

   "I'm bothering the son-in-law." The officials in black and white costumes collectively bowed.

  The son-in-law Xu Zhiyuan, with the eldest princess Zhao Zhenlan, has moved back to Huating County from Nanjing.

  The reason is very simple. Xu Zhiyuan opened a new factory and used a lot of steam engines. He had to go back to Huating to watch it in person, and at the same time carefully summarize the pros and cons of steam engine weaving, so as to prescribe the right medicine and improve it.

  Plum and Zhuyou felt very big when they entered the factory area. This son-in-law is really rich.

Xu Zhiyuan introduced while walking: "There are three main processes for spinning cotton into cotton cloth, namely: ginning, spinning, and weaving. In the next factory, there are no ginners, and the ginning is done by farmers or small workshops. Do."

  Cotton ginning is to gin the cotton into lint, and the traditional tool is a churn.

  Spinning is to spin cotton sliver into cotton yarn, and the traditional tool is spinning wheel.

  Weaving is to weave cotton yarn into cotton cloth, and the traditional tool is a loom.

  When Mei Zhuyou inspected the textile factory, Liu Chuanzong and others were investigating in the Jiangnan countryside.

   At this time, it was the cotton harvest season. Although the production was reduced in a large area, the rural areas were still very busy and were not affected by the steam engine.

  After the cotton farmers harvest the cotton, they cut the cotton and remove the seeds, card the cotton and remove impurities, and use cotton bows to shoot the cotton by themselves. There is a mixer in the family, who gins cotton husks or even slivers; if there is no mixer, they sell the cotton to small workshops in the town.

   There are also two types of mixers, one is the traditional mixer, which requires three people to operate at the same time. One is a new type of agitator, which has been around since the dawn of time and can be operated by only one person, but it has obvious defects that cannot be popularized, and it has gradually become popular after improvements in recent years.

  More and more carpenters have learned to make new-style mixers.

  It is difficult to protect the invention patent for improving the mixer. Carpenters are hired everywhere in the countryside to build new-style mixer trucks for their own use, and officials can go door-to-door to fine them?

   Seeing someone removing seeds and impurities in the yard, Liu Chuanzong walked over and asked, "My fellow, how is the harvest this year?"

  The whole family was busy with work, the woman looked at Liu Chuanzong curiously, but did not answer due to the difference between men and women.

  The old farmer was working swiftly, and said with a smile, "Is the customer here to collect cotton lint or cotton yarn?"

  Liu Chuanzong said: "All accepted."

  The old farmer said with emotion: "This year's drought, the cotton harvest is not good. If the customer collects cotton, the price should be higher, otherwise we will not sell it."

  Liu Chuanzong asked: "Now there is a new machine that can burn coal to spin yarn. The price of cotton yarn dropped last year. Do you still spin yarn yourself?"

   "Last year, the price of cotton yarn was lowered because of the good cotton harvest. What's the matter with new machinery? Don't lie to me." The old farmer obviously regarded Liu Chuanzong as a profiteer.

  This is also one of the reasons for the price reduction of cotton yarn. Last year, not only the south of the Yangtze River had a good cotton harvest, but Shandong, which was gradually recovering, also had a good harvest, which led to a sharp drop in the price of cotton yarn in the whole of China.

  The production will be reduced this year, and it will definitely increase again.

  Liu Chuanzong asked: "With the new machine coming, has the farmers earned less money?"

  The old farmer said: "That's it."

  In the factory.

Xu Zhiyuan said: "During the Ming Dynasty, the speed of spinning was far behind that of weaving. After hydraulic spinning, the situation eased a little. Only in the towns near the big waterwheel, the speed of weaving was on the contrary. No spinning. Later, some craftsmen improved the spinning wheel and barely raised the spinning speed.”

  The situation of the textile industry in the late Ming Dynasty was that the loom was too advanced, and the spinning wheel was seriously behind. When weaving, there will be no yarn during weaving, and cotton yarn is always looted by merchants.

   "This is the steam spinning machine." Xu Zhiyuan pointed forward.

  Everyone looked up and saw workers repeatedly shoveling coal in front of several large stoves, and the cooking boilers drove the spinning machines to work.

  Mei Zhuyou asked: "How does the steam spinning machine work?"

  Xu Zhiyuan smiled wryly and said: "It's not that bad. To be honest, I have already regretted it. The steam engine is like a water wheel, it can only spin roving. If you want fine yarn, you have to let the workers finish it again with a spinning wheel."

   During the process of spinning cotton sliver into cotton yarn, continuous twisting is required to make the sliver have a certain strength without breaking.

  Combined with the steam engine and the workers, fine spinning is temporarily impossible, and only semi-finished products—rovings can be spun.

   Then use a traditional spinning wheel to refine the roving to make the cotton yarn finer and make the cotton fibers straight and parallel.

  Xu Zhiyuan took everyone to the warehouse, and saw many women queuing there.

Xu Zhiyuan explained: "They are all peasant women from nearby villages and towns. When they finish spinning their own cotton, they go to the factory to get the roving, and when they go home, they spin it into spun yarn and then send it to the factory. The steam loom is very useful, and the spinning speed is really fast. , The spinning speed can’t keep up at all. Since the completion of my steam factory, there are no farmers spinning cloth in the three towns around, and they all help my factory spin yarn. Even so, there is still not enough cotton yarn.”

  The traditional handicraft industry that Zhao Han was worried about was destroyed. This situation has not happened for the time being, but is developing towards the opposite situation.

  The emergence of steam looms led to a shortage of cotton yarn.

   Today's farmers no longer weave their own cloth, but are all engaged in ginning and spinning. As a result, their income has increased, and no matter how much yarn they spin, they can sell it. The only worry is that there is not enough cotton. The trouble of steam factory owners is that there is not enough cotton yarn.

   "Those boiler burners aren't Chinese, right?" Mei Zhuyou asked, pointing to the workers with darker complexion.

  Xu Zhiyuan replied: "Nanyang slaves... hired workers."

  Plum Zhuyou asked again: "Among the textile workers, are there any Nanyang hired workers?"

  Xu Zhiyuan laughed and said: "Nanyang hired workers are very stupid. How dare they let them touch the spinning wheel and loom? Even if they burn the boiler, they have to be taught repeatedly. Everyone is as stupid as a pig."

  Plum Zhuyou walked over and asked a Nanyang slave: "Where did you come from?"

  The slave shook his head.

  Plum Zhuyou asked again: "How are you doing?"

  The slave grinned and said, "Okay."

  This is not a lie. Burning boilers in factories and being able to eat every day is better than living in Nanyang. Today there are no electric lights, and no work is done at night. It is impossible for workers to be forced to work fifteen or sixteen hours.

  The hours of work depends entirely on how long the day is.

  British textile workers, their working hours were extended in step with the development of lighting equipment. Before the invention of electric light, there were Algonquin lamps, gas lamps, etc., which enabled workers to work at night.

  Early winter.

  More than a dozen investigation reports were placed in front of Zhao Han.

  The appearance of the steam engine did not destroy the small-scale peasant economy and traditional handicraft industry, but instead promoted the development of traditional hand-woven textiles and increased the income of spinning farmers. Zhao Han was very pleasantly surprised by this status quo. He even thought that it would be best to maintain this status quo if the technology stopped improving.

   Once the steam engine can weave spun yarn, it will definitely be a huge blow to weavers.

  The use of foreign slaves has become common in several southern provinces, which far exceeded Zhao Han's expectations.

  Especially the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, there are more or less Nanyang female slaves in their families, and many male slaves are farming in the fields.

  This winter, another decree was issued: foreign male employees are not allowed to marry and have children in China. Migrant women hired workers, and the government encouraged marriage. After marriage and childbirth, the household registration fell into the husband's family, and the status was equivalent to that of a Chinese, and no additional poll tax was paid.

  As soon as this order came out, the slave trade was further stimulated, and a large number of female slaves were sold to the north where women were scarce!

  Many northern men who can’t marry wives save money to buy Nanyang women. Anyway, the lowest one is only a few yuan, and according to the imperial decree, you can still go to the government to settle normally.

  (end of this chapter)