In the evening, Cheng Qian wrote a report to the emperor under an oil lamp.
This was the homework assigned to him by Huaiyu. He had to write a diary every day to record his experiences in the countryside, and also write a report to the emperor about some of the things he learned in the countryside. It could be regarded as a peasant investigation report.
No investigation, no right to speak.
If you don't understand the real situation, then the decisions you make based on your head will definitely be problematic.
"Teacher, I really didn't expect that ordinary people's lives would be so difficult," Cheng Qian sighed. "The candles I used in the East Palace, the most common candles made of ordinary materials, cost one hundred and fifty cents each.
Five hundred cents for a candle, and scented candles are more expensive,
Even an ordinary candle is equivalent to the current five-stone wheat price, and burning one candle is equivalent to burning the output of two or three acres of land."
Wu Huaiyu said, "Your Highness has been harvesting rice in the countryside recently. He knows that farming is not easy and every grain is hard. But producing candles is also not easy.
There are three main types of candles today. One is made of beeswax, also known as yellow wax. The output is limited and the price is precious. In the Han and Jin Dynasties, only the royal family or wealthy people like Shi Chong could afford this luxury product.
The candles we use now are mainly white wax. We raise white wax insects and leave white droppings between the branches and stems, which is white wax."
Nowadays, many people raise white wax insects in the Jianghuai area, and the benefits are comparable to raising silkworms. Compared with yellow wax, white wax has a higher melting point, is more flexible, can be made into longer candles, and is brighter when lit.
Because white wax insects can be artificially cultivated in large quantities, the production of white wax has increased. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, candles were no longer as luxurious and expensive as they were during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, but they were still not something ordinary people could afford.
An ordinary candle in the palace costs one hundred and fifty yuan. Although it is used by the palace, it is definitely much more expensive than the private candle.
Ordinary scholars and landowners still used oil lamps at home, but lamp oil was not cheap.
For one pound of lamp oil, you can buy at least ten pounds of grain. Even if prices are low now, lamp oil consumption is still very high, so ordinary people are reluctant to even light oil lamps. Even the scholars in Chang'an City will deliberately buy oil-saving lamps invented by merchants.
.
The brothel in Pingkangfang, Chang'an, asked a singer to come out and sing a song for three hundred yuan.
If you want to show off your wealth, you can add a candle, which will cost you three hundred dollars.
So if a rich person goes to Pingkangfang and lights ten candles at a time and asks the maids to hold them and stand in a row, it will definitely be very impressive. After all, the cost of the candles will cost 3,000 yuan. If the candles are burned out, what will happen again?
If you want to renew the candle, it will still cost you three hundred coins.
Three hundred cents, at the current price of grain, can buy ten shi of rice and wheat, which is the output of ten acres.
"I heard that the teacher seems to have a candle workshop at home?"
"Well, there are a few, but none of them have much output. One is a paraffin workshop located in Shuofang, which uses paraffin to make wax. The effect is not very good, and the smoke and smell are strong. There is also a workshop in Hebei.
Wax is made from the fat of large fish in the sea, or from animal fat such as cattle and sheep.
But it’s still not a success,”
Although the fat from cow and sheep skins scraped by leather makers can also be used to make soap and wax, making candles is more time-consuming and labor-intensive, and has disadvantages such as odor.
Wu Huaiyu is actually more interested in whaling to make wax. China has used whale oil to make wax a long time ago, but there are many shortcomings. First, the smell is unpleasant, and second, the output is limited.
Raising ash insects to make wax is more stable.
"Teacher, I think the sweat of the common people is really worthless." Cheng Qian sighed. Recently, his hands had blisters, then blood blisters, and finally calluses.
"A pound of Tongzhou mutton costs 30 cents, and a stone of wheat only costs 30 cents. If you grow wheat on dry land in the plateau, you can only harvest about 1 stone per mu in one season. That's how much sweat is spilled on the ground."
Huaiyu nodded, "So, you can't just grow grain, and farmers can't just farm. Just grow grain to ensure rations and royal grain. The rest should be planted with some cash crops, such as mulberry, hemp, and cotton.
Or it could be growing medicinal materials, or taking advantage of geographical conditions to grow tea and fruit trees,"
The two were discussing under the lamp.
Wu Huaiyu plans to try growing cotton in Shangwubao in Fanchuan River next year, but now the thousand acres of land in Shangwubao are all leased to the villagers of Shangwu and Xiaozhuang. Wu Huaiyu cannot make the decision himself if he wants to grow cotton.
The people here are accustomed to growing rice, relying on water for irrigation. The harvest from rice is good and cost-effective.
It is actually possible to grow cotton in rice fields, but you have to dig trenches and dry the land in advance to let the land dry and loosen. Although growing cotton in rice fields may not be the most suitable, the economic value of cotton is now high, especially when it is processed into cotton cloth and cotton-padded clothes.
Silk is much more expensive.
"If you plant cotton, you will not only earn more from the field than by growing rice, but there will also be a lot of work such as removing seeds, spinning, weaving, and dyeing. The villagers will have more money-making work, and my Wu family produces more
If you sell cotton cloth in Chang'an, you can also get more profits, which is a win-win situation."
But I'm afraid the tenants won't understand. After all, drawing cakes may not be something that everyone can believe.
"Does the teacher want to take back the land?"
"No need. In fact, it is very simple to let them grow cotton. First, make a contract with them to give them a guarantee. For example, they only need to sign a contract to grow cotton, accept my guidance from Wujiabao, agree on the purchase price of cotton, and promise
For one season of cotton cultivation, the Wu family guarantees that they will be given two stones of rice per acre. They should be willing to do so if they have this guarantee."
Fanchuan's summer rice yield is only about two shi per mu. Now the Wu family is willing to promise a guaranteed income of two shi of grain. If the money from growing cotton and selling it is less than two shi of rice, the Wu family will supply the shortage and the excess will be theirs.
"The teacher is so kind to them. What they make is theirs, but what they lose is the teacher's."
"Loss, it is impossible to lose," Huaiyu smiled and calculated the details for Cheng Qian. Nowadays, the market of Bai Diebu is very popular in Chang'an. They are high-end luxury goods, mainly imported from Gaochang Kingdom in the Western Regions.
It was the Sogdian Hu merchants who trafficked it to Beijing and sold it for much more than silk.
But Baidie cloth is cotton cloth, but the most expensive one is fine cotton cloth. Wu Huaiyu has studied that although today's Gaochang cotton is not the variety of later generations, the main limitation on its output is the processing technology, especially the seed removal in Gaochang.
The technology is relatively primitive and purely manual, and the textile technology is also relatively backward.
After all, Gaochang State is still very small to begin with. Even though they have a tradition of cotton spinning, they are too small to promote iterative upgrades in technology, and cotton cloth has become a very niche handmade product.
But the technical difficulty is not too high.
The Lingnan area, especially the raccoon natives of Hainan Island, have a tradition of spinning kapok, and their technology is better than that of Gaochang.
The Central Plains is now unified, and the market for cotton cloth has broad prospects. If the Wu family can have more cotton in hand, the profits from processing and selling it will be considerable.
In terms of raw materials, even if there is a small subsidy, it is still very profitable.
The price of food has dropped to the bottom. One stone only costs twenty or thirty dollars. To be honest, this is a price that can be deprived of people. The cotton of Gaochang State is actually not expensive. They call it Zhihua.
A kilogram of top-quality grass costs only seven cents, and one acre can produce at least twenty kilograms.
But white quilted cloth is expensive. One foot of fine quilted cloth costs 45 coins for the top grade, 44 coins for the second grade, and 43 coins for the bottom grade. Even if it is second grade, the price is 30 coins for the top grade, 25 coins for the second grade, and 43 coins for the bottom grade.
Twenty coins, one foot of thick cloth, the top grade is also worth eleven coins, and the second grade is ten coins.
One end of the cloth is fifty feet long, and the finest fine white folded cloth is worth two thousand two hundred and fifty cents at one end. This is the price of Gaochang domestically produced, and the Sogdians can even pay several times more for it when it is shipped to Chang'an.
Ten pounds of cotton can weave one end of cloth, and one acre of cotton can weave two ends of cloth.
Therefore, cotton in Chang'an was sold at the price of Jinxiu.
There are very few cottons planted in the mainland of the Tang Dynasty. For example, in Hebei, Fan Yanglu's family grew some cotton. Wu Huaiyu learned about their cotton planting output. One acre can produce about 60 to 70 kilograms of seed cotton and about 20 kilograms of lint.
Cotton cultivation requires sufficient sunshine and little rain. The amount of cotton grown by the Lu family is small, and the technology is still somewhat insufficient. The cotton produced by Gaochangguo can produce up to 30 kilograms of lint per mu.
However, even if an acre produces a low yield of 20 kilograms of cotton, it can be sold for 140 yuan at 7 yuan per kilo. But now one stone of rice only costs 30 yuan, and even if the yield of two kilos per mu is only 60 yuan, two shi.
It's only seventy-five yuan for a fight.
One stone of cotton can be sold for 840 yuan, and one stone of rice can be sold for 30 yuan, a difference of nearly 30 times. Therefore, even if the cotton output is as low as 20 pounds per acre, the income from cotton is still more than twice that of rice.
If the output can be increased, the benefits will more than triple.
The Wu family processed cotton and made higher profits.
One acre of cotton is worth more than 4,000 yuan when woven into fine cloth. Excluding the cost of cotton and labor costs, the profit is still very high.
Cheng Qian was a little stunned when he heard this, "Is white cloth so expensive? Two or three pieces of fine white cloth are made per piece?"
"It's not a luxury product, it's not that expensive. The price of fine tailoring is even more expensive,"
Cheng Qian thought about the prices of gold brocade, Shu brocade, embroidery, Dake silk and other precious silk products, and stopped talking.
The price of a piece of plain silk or a piece of cloth is indeed only three hundred yuan, but the price of Jinxiu is not comparable to that of plain silk.
"When cotton is grown, women from nearby villages can come to Wu's house to get cotton processed, or they can work directly in the factory."
Wu Huaiyu told the prince that the nearby villagers could come to the Wu family to learn to spin cotton yarn and weave cotton cloth, or go directly to the Wu family's textile factory to work, or they could learn to take the cotton or cotton yarn to their homes for processing.
You can also get an opportunity to make money,
The villagers earn one level of income from growing cotton, and another level from textile processing. For the Wu family, they earn one level from rent collection, and another level from textile processing and sales. They can also earn another level from selling cloth or even cutting and custom-made clothes.
Win-win cooperation for everyone.
The Wu family used villagers to grow cotton and process textiles to ensure their own output and supply.
Compared with simply growing rice, not only the land income of the tenants increased, but also the income from processing, the landlord Wu Huaiyu earned more.
Even if the supply of cotton cloth gradually increases and the price drops in the future, there is no need to worry, the prospects are still very bright.
In the Ming Dynasty, a skilled weaver woman could weave more than a hundred pieces of cloth a year, and her reward was usually one piece of cloth, three pounds of cotton, or a bucket of rice.
A piece of cloth uses ten pounds of cotton, which is about the same as linen.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the income of women in Jiangnan from weaving was often much higher than that from farming.
If the Wu family's textile factory is opened and cotton gins are built, the income of the Wu family and nearby village women can be greatly increased. Compared with the traditional family planting mulberry, hemp, silkworms and silk weaving, the income will be higher.
The next day, Wu Huaiyu called Old Man Zheng and other tenants.
When Wu Huaiyu mentioned that he planned to let everyone grow cotton next year, everyone was stunned. They had never even heard of cotton.
"Mr. Sir, the land in Fanchuan is a good rice field. It is good land that can guarantee harvests despite droughts and floods. It would be a pity not to grow food and grow other crops."
"Yes, mulberry and hemp are planted on the plateau slopes, and the irrigated fields only grow rice."
The tenants all care about the land and feel that good land must be planted with good grains. Mulberries, sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc. are all grown on the corners or dry land on the plateau.
"If you grow cotton for one season, I can guarantee you a guaranteed income of two stones of rice per mu. In other words, in this first year, the Wu family can directly give you two stones of rice per mu for one season. If you plant cotton according to the requirements of the Wu family, the cotton you harvest will be
Go back to the Wu family and plant for one season first. When you get the results, if you think it's a good deal, you can plant it yourself next year, how about it?"
Many tenants thought to themselves, isn't this equivalent to the Wu family renting the land back? They are equivalent to farming the land for the Wu family. No matter whether the cotton is good or bad, the Wu family still gives them two stones of rice in the end.
Well, according to the lease, they still have to pay one stone in rent. In fact, they help the Wu family grow cotton for one season. Regardless of whether the output is good or bad, they can guarantee one stone of rice per acre.
Sounds pretty good.
"This season, the seeds, fertilizers, and even cattle in the cotton fields are all provided by the Wu family, and you only provide labor.
You also save on rice seeds and fertilizers, and you can directly harvest one stone of rice at a guaranteed cost, which is still very cost-effective."
Wu Huaiyu then said that after the cotton is harvested, it will be time to spin the seeds and weave cloth. You can also do work to make money, weaving a piece of cotton to earn a bucket of rice, and even taking care of a meal.
After three days of proficiency, you can weave one piece.
All the tenants who heard this couldn't help but feel excited.
It sounds really good.
The wages for weaving ten bolts a month is one stone of rice. This is the wages of a young and strong man working as a long-term worker.
