Chapter 2256 The joint request of the Ming Textile Chamber of Commerce
Chapter 2256, Joint request of Daming Textile Joint Chamber of Commerce
In the study room of the Qianqing Palace in the Imperial Palace in Beijing, Emperor Zhengde Zhu Houzhao was discussing state affairs with important ministers.
"Your Majesty, there are huge problems in our textile industry in Ming Dynasty right now."
"Almost all textile factories have a large amount of inventory squeeze. Some of them have even squeezed their output for several months. Slowly, warehouses are filled with goods."
"In addition, almost all factories in the textile industry are now facing serious shortages of operating capacity. Most factories are now only open for half a day, and some have even begun to shut down."
"Many factories have closed down, and a large number of textile workers have lost their jobs."
Wang Shouren delivered a detailed investigation and compilation of memorials to Emperor Zhengde. It is estimated that the textile industry has been experiencing thunderstorms in the past few months.
Because some weak factories could no longer hold on long ago, they were closed down or closed down, and some bosses even went bankrupt.
Many textile workers are unemployed, which means that other industries in the Ming Empire are still developing rapidly. Those who are now unemployed will soon be able to find other jobs.
In addition, people in the Ming Dynasty have always paid attention to a way out. Many people still have their own land in the countryside, so even if they are unemployed, they can find a job quickly, or simply go home to farm.
Otherwise, even if millions of people are unemployed now, it will be a major event and will impact all fields of the Ming Empire.
Of course, people in the Ming Dynasty have always liked to save money, so everyone has savings in their hands, and it is not like they will be unable to live suddenly because of unemployment.
In addition, the majority of textile workers are women. If women lose their jobs, they can return to their families. If the men in the family are making money, considering the current situation in the Ming Dynasty, it is enough to support the whole family.
The situation is not very serious yet, and Ming Dynasty can withstand the current situation, but once the entire textile industry collapses, 20 million textile workers will be unemployed.
This impact is very large. It will affect the income and consumption of 20 million families, and will also have an impact on some related industries.
"Is there such a thing?"
When Zhu Houzhao heard this, he immediately frowned, picked up the memorial and began to read it quickly.
As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and he started his career as a small county magistrate step by step, he is very familiar with the situation in the Gyeonggi region.
Today's Ming Empire is no longer the traditional feudal society dominated by small-scale peasant economy, but a large empire based on industrial economy and developing on the road of capitalism.
There was no such thing as unemployment before, because almost all people were firmly tied to the land, and the vast majority of people were farming. Apart from farming, it was difficult to find other jobs, even if For many craftsmen, their main job is still farming.
But things are different now. There are fewer and fewer people farming in the Ming Empire. Most of the farmers farming are based on mechanized farming, large-scale planting, special economic planting and breeding, and they have long since broken away from the agricultural economy. The old methods and traditions of growing grains are gone.
Agriculture, which is dominated by mechanized farming, requires very few farmers. A single farmer can easily cultivate thousands or even thousands of acres of land. As a result, a large amount of labor has flowed into the industrial field.
Even in the three major agricultural and grain-producing provinces of Liaodong, Hezhong and Black Earth Province, only a small number of the new generation of young people are engaged in the farming work of their fathers.
More young people are engaged in jobs related to industrial production. The industrial development in these three provinces is also very rapid. For example, in Liaodong, the steel industry, shipbuilding industry, furniture industry, coal mining, building materials industry, etc. are also developing.
It is growing very rapidly and has the potential to become another major industrial base in Ming Dynasty.
Compared with the agricultural field, the industrial field can gather more people, provide more jobs, have relatively higher wages, and the work is more single and pure.
In addition, living in the city makes life more colorful and more attractive to young people.
In general, the proportion of the agricultural population is getting smaller and smaller. The Ming Empire cannot rely on agriculture to solve the employment problem of the Ming people. In the end, it still relies on industry.
Zhu Houzhao knew this very well.
The area occupied by the Beijing-Tianjin region can be said to be very small in the Ming Dynasty, but the total population of the Beijing-Tianjin region exceeds 30 million people. Such a huge population is gathered in the Beijing-Tianjin region.
What to live on?
It is not the developed industry, commerce, finance, etc. in the Beijing-Tianjin region that can provide enough jobs to feed such a huge population.
Once there is a problem in the textile industry, a large number of textile workers will lose their jobs. This is a major matter related to the employment of 20 million people.
"It's so good, why can't clothes, shoes, and cloth be sold all of a sudden?"
Zhu Houzhao read it in detail, then frowned and asked.
"Your Majesty, this is mainly because there are too many textile factories, and these textile factories basically use new textile machinery, with very high production capacity and efficiency. The output of cloth, clothes, shoes, etc. is very large.
, the market can’t digest it all.”
"That's why it happened. The entire industry has extremely huge inventories and a lot of squeeze."
Zhong Fan thought for a while and said.
In fact, Zhong Fan also has a textile factory under his command, and he is relatively clear about his own situation. After all, it is mainly because there are too many factories in the textile industry and the production capacity is too large. The market does not need so many clothes, shoes, cloth, etc.
of.
"What Mr. Zhong said is wrong!"
At this time, Li Kun stood up and expressed his opposition.
"I have here a request letter from the Daming Textile Federation Chamber of Commerce. The letter explains in detail the problems that our Daming Textile Factory is currently facing and the root causes of these problems."
Li Kun took out the request letter. In the past few days, people from the Textile Chamber of Commerce also visited many ministers in the court. Now these ministers in the court of the Ming Empire are all practical ministers.
Basically, he has many industries under his command, and many of them have factories and shares in the textile industry. It can be said that they are inextricably linked to factories and firms in various fields in the Ming Dynasty.
The textile industry is having a hard time, and these ministers are also having a hard time, so it will naturally be fed back to the highest decision-making center of the Ming Empire.
Zhu Houzhao took the request and read it carefully.
"Mainly because overseas colonies and vassal states allowed the use of slaves, the cost of overseas textile factories was much lower than that of Ming Dynasty textile factories."
"A large amount of cheap overseas cloth, clothes, and shoes are impacting our local textile companies in Ming Dynasty, and eventually our local textile factories in Ming Dynasty have no way to survive?"
Zhu Houzhao read it carefully and understood the main meaning at once.
Those in the textile industry of the Ming Dynasty attributed the problem to this and felt that there was unfair competition because the Ming Empire did not allow the use of slaves, but overseas colonies and vassal states did.
Therefore, their low costs impacted the local market of Ming Dynasty and robbed the global market, making it difficult for local enterprises of Ming Dynasty to survive.
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
"The workers used in overseas textile factories are slaves. The cost of these slaves is very low. They only need to be fed. They can work 12 hours a day or even longer."
"And there is no break throughout the year, so you can keep working."
"But our Ming Dynasty is different. Workers in the Ming Dynasty have extremely high labor wages, at least a hundred taels of silver a year. In addition, we here in the Ming Dynasty implement an eight-hour work system, with two days off every week."
"With such a huge gap, the cost of textile factories overseas is much, much lower than the cost of textiles here in Ming Dynasty."
"They can sell at extremely low prices and still make huge profits, but our local enterprises in the Ming Dynasty cannot do this, because even if they sell at a loss, they cannot compete with enterprises in overseas colonies and vassal states."
Li Kun said solemnly.
"In addition, there are no additional tariffs between our Ming Dynasty and various vassal states and colonies. There is no need for additional taxes on goods from colonies and vassal states that are returned to our Ming Dynasty."
"This is extremely unfair to our Ming Dynasty enterprises, because our Ming Dynasty enterprises can not only pay a large amount of taxes for the court, but also provide a large number of jobs for Ming Dynasty and promote economic development.
Prosperity."
"But those overseas textile factories not only did not pay taxes in Ming Dynasty, but also did not provide jobs for Ming Dynasty, but they can enjoy the same market. This is very unfair."
"Once our Ming Dynasty's textile industry collapses, the employment of 20 million people will be a big problem, and the court's tax revenue will also be reduced."
"So the Ming Dynasty Textile Joint Chamber of Commerce requests your Majesty to consider the employment and livelihood of the 20 million people in Ming Dynasty and impose additional tariffs on cloth, clothes, shoes, etc. coming from overseas, in order to maintain fair competition in the market."
"Protect our local enterprises in Ming Dynasty, protect our local employment and prosperity in Ming Dynasty."
"Of course, the Daming Textile Federation Chamber of Commerce also requests His Majesty to cancel the holiday system, cancel the restrictions on working hours, weekend breaks and holidays."
"This will increase labor time, reduce costs, and promote the development of the textile industry."
Li Kun's words also made everyone immediately couldn't help but frown.
The textile industry is indeed facing many problems, but it is absolutely impossible to make suggestions and put pressure on the court based on the problem of feeding 20 million people.
The imperial court's policies took into account the development and interests of the entire Ming Dynasty, not just the problems of the 20 million people in the textile industry.
What's more, if there is a problem in the textile industry, they will advise the court on what to do. If other industries have problems in the future, can they also follow suit?
