Wanli Youming

Chapter 426

Chapter 426

The sound of cicadas called the midsummer of the 13th year of Wanli, and watermelons began to be planted in every well.

And in Songjiang Prefecture, where the cotton industry is developed.

The female family members of the Xu family, a large textile family, also took the watermelon out of the green well, cut it into several pieces, and sent them to the weaving workshop on large porcelain plates for the weavers to relieve the summer heat.

The development of the cotton textile industry promoted the more liberalization of weavers, and the relationship with the owners of the weaving workshops changed from a master-servant relationship to an employment relationship, or even a partnership relationship.

Especially skilled weavers will be treated well.

In order to win over more mature weavers to produce cotton cloth for themselves, the host family will avoid resigning because they are free workers and have no personal attachment relationship with themselves, and choose to resign just because other hosts are better. Give some care at work, such as summer care.

The same is true for the Xu family, a wealthy businessman in Songjiang.

For this reason, in recent years, almost every summer, the Xu family will provide their weavers with watermelons in the well every day.

This is different from before the downfall of the Xu Jie family.

Before the collapse of the Xu Jie family, half of the Songjiang cotton cloth industry was controlled by the Xu family, and the other half was controlled by other big families, and even the land was controlled by the Xu family and several big noble families. Therefore, no matter whether it is the employees in the weaving workshop or the tenant farmers on the land, there is a great personal dependence relationship with these employers and landlords.

Even the local people cannot get jobs and rent opportunities if they don’t take the initiative to be their slaves!

Even if you get the opportunity to work and rent, because you are a domestic slave, you have to undertake other aspects of labor for the master every year, such as accompanying the young master to the exam, or taking on the role of security guard and carrying the sacrifices during the sacrifice.

What is different now is that because the big bureaucratic family of Xu Jie who monopolized local industries and land has collapsed, and the new policy made the Ming Dynasty take the initiative to expand abroad, the main destinations of overseas trade—Nagasaki and Hepingo, Japan. The trading power was controlled by the imperial court, and the imperial court also changed the entire trade with Japan from only smuggling and monopolizing the trade to allowing civilians and even helping civilians to trade in Japan to increase tax revenue, which made Songjiang cotton cloth, which relies on foreign trade, Not only big families like the Xu family can participate, but even small people can participate, which further makes it difficult to form a monopoly.

What's more, Zhu Yijun also abolished the Hongzhi dynasty's system that severely restricted the freedom of workers and restricted the growth of the working class.

Therefore, today’s Songjiang cotton cloth industry has already involved many ordinary merchants, and many large workshops and many small workshops are involved in production. This has resulted in stronger competition, competition in management has also begun, and the production relationship has begun to improve. , not only increases the freedom of employment, but also can reversely require employers to increase benefits for themselves, such as summer cooling, charcoal fire in winter, and even monthly rest time, etc.

As such.

There are even fewer people who are willing to be slaves. Even those from poor families are seldom willing to sell their children. They are more willing to let their children go to various government-run or private workshops as apprentices, because that will not only earn income but also live. Be more like a person, unless the price is enough.

It can be said that the downfall of big bureaucrats, big landlords and big merchants like Xu Jie's family who monopolized local industries can really cause the phenomenon of "one whale falls and all things live".

Daming won not only the money obtained by raiding the house, but also a more active commodity economic market, and more free workers and ordinary wealthy businessmen, making the entire national economy healthier, and what is directly reflected in the tax revenue is that the tax revenue is increasing year by year. more than a year.

But because of this, if the landlords and gentry wanted to increase the number of slaves, they had to increase the cost of money and even spiritual costs.

Lu Shude wanted to buy a girl to be his concubine.

After all, his appointment as an official in Nanjing is equivalent to being relegated to idleness. He didn't cater to the wishes of the ruling party, so he wanted to improve the quality of life and enjoy the life of an old man and young wife more, but because he heard that a girl nowadays needs to be treated even if she has not been trained. It would cost 5000 taels of silver to buy a room for a concubine, so I had to stay back.

Moreover, when he was gathering with Nanjing Zuo Tongzheng Yang Yingkui, eunuch Zhang Jing, Sun Dexiu and other southern celebrities, he also said with emotion:

"Now that the Holy Son of Heaven is in power, it is really Haiyan Heqing, and the world is in great order!"

"Even if the common people sell their sons and daughters because they can't survive, there are fewer and fewer people who are self-deprecating and self-deprecating. If the old man wants to take a concubine, he will spend several times more silver dollars. I can only dispel this idea for a while. , Don’t think of a pear tree crushing a crabapple.”

"The public is right. Girls are not easy to buy now. The price is still second. The key is that it is also difficult to buy. Although Japanese slaves are better bought, but after they are shipped from there, they will not be much cheaper! You have to spend More time to train and train."

Yang Yingkui also talked about this at this time.

The gentleman Xiao Yinze choked up at this moment, waved his hands and said, "Don't talk about it, sir! Thinking of this makes me feel bad!"

"Why are you uncomfortable?"

Zhang Jing asked at this moment.

Xiao Yinze said in detail: "Isn't this the promotion of new rituals? Although the prosperity of the country and the people's security are a good thing, but my Xiao family has been a Confucian for generations, not a businessman, and not good at financial management, so I haven't managed a large family business. As for the eldest grandson, although he finally has one, he can only have five maids to serve him, while his father always had more than ten maids!"

"When I think about it, I feel that my eldest grandson is pitiful! Huh!"

"How can five servant girls take good care of him!"

Both Lu Shude and Yang Yingkui nodded their heads, and they both showed pity for Xiao Yin and empathized with him.

Yang Yingkui said at this time: "I have three sons, but each has only two common houses. How is this conducive to the continuation of the heirs? Sometimes I think about whether the so-called policy of promoting new rituals is too far-fetched, so that no distinction can be made between noble and poor. Does the ceremony really conform to the teaching of saints?"

"Common people under courtesy are like this. The most important thing in power is that everyone knows the courtesy! Therefore, the current situation is unavoidable. If everyone in the world can really know the courtesy, and the long-term peace and stability, we gentry clan will suffer more from poverty , nothing!"

"But will this really last long?"

"Is it really good to let the people enjoy leisure and hate work so that they don't know their dignity?"

"Is it really beneficial for the emperor to rule the people?"

Lu Shude talked a few words at this time, and asked again and again, "No way?"

On the other hand, Zhang Jing smiled at Sun Dexiu and Sun Hai.

Zhang Jing felt that he was still very good among the eunuchs, otherwise, he would not have stepped up to the supervisor of the East Factory, but he didn't feel that it was so pitiful to have only five servant girls around him, and he didn't I think how poor it would be to only have two rooms per room. After all, when he was still studying in the inner school, he didn't even have anyone to serve him. He even had to serve eunuchs who were more qualified than him, but he could still read good books When he grows up and becomes a talent, he can also participate in the high-level power struggle of the imperial court and win more than lose.

Zhang Jing suddenly felt that his eunuchs were not in the same world as these scholar-bureaucrats.

He feels that these people like himself have cut off their descendants and served others for many years before they can be served. However, people have been served since they were young, and even if they only have five servings, they belong to the pitiful category.

"No wonder His Majesty wants me to come to Jiangnan and integrate into the circle of scholar-bureaucrats. I really don't know if I don't want to go to Jiangnan and integrate into it!"

"It turns out that people are so different from each other."

"It's just that they feel that they are very pitiful and miserable, but to our family, it's nothing at all, let alone the common people, I'm afraid the common people will hate them even more because of this!"

Zhang Jing said.

"Even I hate their pretense!"

"I can't wait for them to go to do the same as our family did back then. They wash clothes and fan the people who take me in the hot summer, and then they can read and recite articles in the middle of the night, and let them know what is pitiful!"

Sun Hai couldn't help cursing.

Sun Dexiu said with a smile on the side: "They are indeed much more uncomfortable than before. It is said that this time the Qing army hooked up the army, and all the new gambling halls that laundered the stolen money opened up, and even started to sell usury money. The IOU was resold and sold to cash out the silver, but it was blocked. Can you imagine how big a loss it would be?"

(End of this chapter)