In Liu Jin's opinion, the Ming Dynasty was a land with vast resources, a very large population, and extremely rich products. It was simply not comparable to small places like the British Isles.
It was only after the British capitalism had developed to a certain stage that the famous "sheep cannibalism movement" appeared. Because the price of wool soared, a large number of farmers switched to raising sheep to obtain wool.
This resulted in a large number of farmers becoming unemployed and forced to migrate to the cities and become hired workers for factory owners, which in turn promoted the development of capitalism in disguised form.
But the Ming Dynasty was different. The Ming Dynasty was very vast. In terms of cotton alone, there were many places prepared to produce cotton in the Ming Dynasty.
Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Beizhili all produce cotton. The climate in these areas is very suitable for cotton production and the yield is high. More importantly, the Ming Dynasty has a large population. The cotton output is definitely the largest in the world in this era.
First.
Such a huge cotton output is far beyond what small places like the British Isles can compare with.
From the beginning of Ming Dynasty's capitalist development, it was able to achieve self-sufficiency, and it itself had an extremely vast raw material market and a huge domestic market.
This has a good side and a bad side.
The good thing is that the initial development does not need to rely on external forces. The bad thing is that it lacks the power of the other party to expand. This may be an important reason why the Ming Dynasty has never been able to eventually go global like the Europeans, because it has already
Once it is rich enough, there is no motivation to expand externally.
But who knows how long this textile industry has only been around? It only took less than two years for Liu Jin to develop new textile machines and looms.
Now it turns out that there is a shortage of raw materials, and there is not enough cotton.
This made Liu Jin a little unbelievable. Daming's cotton production could not meet the current needs of these factories.
"Mr. Zhang, is this impossible? There will be no cotton now?"
Liu Jin said with some disbelief.
"How is it impossible~"
"Don't go out and take a look. There are at least thousands of large and small textile factories in the entire Beijing-Tianjin area. Large textile factories, like Wang's Caiyun Textile Factory, employ tens of thousands of people, and tens of thousands of machines are running day and night.
If we stop weaving, no amount of cotton will be enough."
"What's more, there are more large-scale textile factories under construction now, and cotton will be even more scarce and prices will rise."
Zhang Mao widened his eyes slightly and said helplessly.
Originally, I only saw the huge profits of the textile factory, but did not see the huge risks behind the textile factory. There were too many people running the factory.
There are too many people investing.
As for the textile factory, as long as the machines are sold from the Jingcheng Machinery Factory, just a few people can open a textile factory and weave a steady stream of cloth.
And everyone knows that we always like to do business in a rush.
As long as someone makes money from a certain business, everyone will follow suit to do that business. The most indispensable thing in Beijing and Tianjin is rich people. If textile factories make money, everyone will follow suit and open textile factories.
"Why are there so many textile factories~"
When Liu Jin heard this, he immediately became thoughtful.
The Ming Dynasty was the most powerful country in this era, and it was also the richest country. Its wealth accumulation itself was very strong.
It is different from the British Isles in history.
The British Isles themselves are very poor and have little capital, so the development of capitalism needs to go through a primitive stage of capital. This primitive accumulation stage of capital is carried out by relying on the bloody plunder of many overseas colonies.
After this stage, the British Isles obtained the original capital for capitalist development, and then developed rapidly, ultimately promoting the occurrence of the Industrial Revolution.
But the Ming Dynasty was different. The Ming Dynasty was so big and rich in itself.
The big landowners, big gentry, big aristocrats, etc. of the Ming Dynasty were all very wealthy themselves. Even without the primitive accumulation of capital, they still had enough wealth.
Once capitalism emerged, Ming Dynasty's own wealth alone would be enough to promote the rapid development of capitalism.
The fact that just a textile industry has developed to such a huge scale in such a short period of time is enough to illustrate this point.
We must know that even after capitalism has developed to a certain scale and degree in the British Isles, it may not be as large as the Beijing-Tianjin region now.
After all, where is the foundation?
"This is a serious problem~"
"If there is no cotton, these factories will not be able to continue operating, and everyone's losses will be great."
Liu Jin thought for a while and frowned.
"Isn't that right? We just ordered machines worth tens of millions of taels from you. If there is no cotton, what use are these machines?"
Zhang Mao nodded and said.
"You brat, just give me a quick word, can this machine be returned?"
"The few of us are not as big as your family. These tens of millions of taels of silver are going to be wasted. I will have to drink from the northwest wind in the future."
"When the time comes, I will come to your house every day to eat and drink~"
Zhang Mao looked like a rogue, he had no choice, this investment was really too big, if it was an investment of several hundred thousand taels, he wouldn't even say a word.
For an investment of tens of millions of taels, for three princes to share, this person would have to pay almost 4 million taels. If this had been left to a few years ago, even if they sold out all the princes' houses, they might not be able to make much money.
.
In the past few years, Liu Jin has done a lot of business, and each one has expanded rapidly. However, the investment of 4 million taels of silver is also a huge amount for them.
"Mr. Zhang, don't be in a hurry to return it. If there is any problem, we can find a way to solve it."
Liu Jin smiled and said, "It is impossible to return the goods. How can it be possible to return the goods?"
"Xu Guangzuo, please tell me something. If your brother-in-law refuses to return the goods, this investment will be wasted~"
When Zhang Mao heard this, he immediately looked at Xu Guangzuo.
"Mr. Zhang, let's listen to what Brother Liu has to say first."
Xu Guangzuo smiled helplessly and said, Liu Jin was his brother-in-law, so it was not easy for him to say this.
"You brat, please tell me how you can solve the problem of insufficient cotton. If it can be solved, I won't return this machine. If it can't be solved, you have to return this machine to me no matter what."
Zhang Mao looked at Liu Jin, knowing that this kid had many clever ideas, and wanted to hear what Liu Jin could do to solve this problem.
"There is not enough cotton, we have two ways to solve it~"
Liu Jin looked at the three of them, pondered for a moment, thought for a while and said.
Hearing Liu Jin's words, Zhang Mao, Xu Guangzuo, and Zhu Fu's eyes also lit up slightly. Liu Jin actually had two ways to solve the problem. This is simply incredible.
When it comes to returns, it is actually because there is no cotton, but as long as there is enough cotton, the cloth they produce is still very popular, and there is no need to worry about selling it.
Liu Jin opened a world map.
"Please see, our cotton-producing areas in Ming Dynasty are only concentrated in these northern provinces~"
"However, one characteristic of Ming Dynasty's cotton is that many people grow cotton not for sale, but for their own use, to make clothes, quilts, etc., and only if there is any surplus, they will be sold."
"So although our textile factory is short of cotton, there is actually a lot of cotton down there that can be purchased. As long as the price is high, there will definitely be a lot of cotton harvested."
Liu Jin thought for a while and spoke. The three of them listened carefully and nodded slightly after listening.
"But this is not a long-term solution. As we have more and more factories, we will need more and more cotton. We have two ideas to solve this problem."
"One is to expand the sources of cotton, and the other is to find substitutes for cotton."
"Expand sources?"
“Looking for alternatives?”
When the three of them heard this, they immediately began to think deeply.
"Yes~"
Liu Jin nodded solemnly and continued.
"There are two ways to expand sources. The first is to expand the planting of cotton. Now most of our fields in the north of Ming Dynasty are planted with wheat, and only a small amount of land is used to grow cotton. If the fields for planting cotton can be expanded, this cotton
The output will naturally increase.”
"Second, we can't just look at our Ming Dynasty. We can look westward, such as Ningxia, Gansu, and the Western Regions. These places are also very suitable for cotton cultivation."
"And the cotton planting area in these places is much larger than that of our Ming Dynasty. The yield of cotton is very high, especially in the Western Region, which has a very vast area. The climate here is dry and the sunshine is abundant, which is very suitable for cotton cultivation. It has a very long history.
The history of cultivation.”
"If our merchants can go here to buy cotton, or if we directly occupy the Western Region, then we won't have to worry about cotton at all in the future."
"Also, if you look at Huangjinzhou, the land here is very fertile and vast. In the future, we can plant cotton on a large scale here in Huangjinzhou."
Liu Jin pointed to the location of the Western Region and spoke slowly.
In later generations, the vast area from the Western Regions to Central Asia was the most important cotton-producing area in the world. The cotton produced here not only had high yields, but also was second to none in quality.
"Western Region?"
When the three of them heard this, they couldn't help being slightly surprised.
While everyone's eyes were still limited to the interior of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Jin's eyes were already looking to the world outside the Ming Dynasty, to the Western Regions, and to the Golden Continent.
"Cotton is produced in this Western Region?"
Zhang Mao was slightly surprised and said that since the Song Dynasty, the Central Plains has basically had no connection with the Western Regions, and relatively little is known about the Western Regions.
In the past, even if someone knew about it, it was through businessmen who were dealing with it, but no businessman would sell cotton to the Ming Dynasty, because that would be a loss to grandma's family.