20demayo Page 968
Page 968
But regretting it is useless now, Zhao Dan can only tell these craftsmen the pitiful knowledge about steam engines in his mind as much as possible, and encourage these craftsmen very kindly, saying that some widows Be patient with you, and you must not give up. After you succeed, the widow will give you all promotions and ranks, and your descendants will also be sheltered and so on.
After walking out of this workshop, Zhao Dan inspected several other workshops one by one.
Generally speaking, the status of an occupation like a craftsman is actually not high, and among scholars, farmers, businessmen, and businessmen, it is a little higher than that of businessmen.
In fact, in this era, it has long been recognized that money does not recognize people. Many big businessmen have long been comparable to rich and wealthy people in terms of living standards, except that they cannot exceed the rules in certain special regulations such as dressing and traveling. The big bosses of later generations are generally the same.
So speaking of it, craftsmen are the hardest job.
And before that, most of the artisans were descendants of captives or criminals, which aggravated the degree of discrimination against the artisans.
Zhao Dan thought for a while, then suddenly opened his mouth and said to Fuzhen, who was a little distracted, probably thinking about the formula of gunpowder: "My dear Fu, do you think it would be a good idea for me to open an engineering school here?" idea?"
Fu Zhen answered vaguely, but immediately came back to his senses, and looked at Zhao Dan with a surprised face: "Your Majesty wants to open a craftsman school here? This"
I was really surprised, after all, I have never heard of anyone setting up a school for craftsmen.
Zhao Dan thought for a while and said: "It's not a school like Huaxia Academy. In fact, I just want to find a place to gather craftsmen, and then ask you to wait for these people to give them lessons and impart some knowledge. That's it. Once they come, these craftsmen themselves have good craftsmanship, and if they have knowledge, they may have the hope of becoming master craftsmen like you in the future, which is a good thing for the widow and Zhao Guo."
It is very difficult for others to be craftsmen in terms of the current social atmosphere. After all, intellectuals these days are basically scholars, and scholars must either become officials or join the army. Who will become a craftsman? Huh?Therefore, there is only one way to tap the internal potential.
Fu Zhen thought for a while, and said: "The idea of the king is certainly very good, but the problem is that most of these craftsmen are illiterate. Where does the time come from to learn knowledge?"
Zhao Dan waved his hand and said very firmly: "Work is endless, but knowledge is not. How about this, I will send some captives over during this time, and from now on I will slowly let these captives go to work Let the craftsmen start to practice calligraphy and learn related knowledge! Also, if all the craftsmen have underage children in their families, then let them all come to school. As for the fees during the school period, the Shaofu will allocate Give!"
Belly really thought of the scene when the group of big bosses under his command would show their teeth and learn to write, and couldn't help but twitched the corners of his mouth, feeling a little funny in his heart: "The king is good at everything, but thinking about things seems too naive Some."
In Fuzhen's opinion, what's the use of this group of illiterate guys even if they have learned knowledge?That is, take it to the grave.
However, Fuzhen still respectfully agreed, and promised to spend a month to prepare, and strive to get this matter done before winter arrives.
9Chapter 17 Textile Workshop (first update)
Before leaving, Zhao Dan inspected the last and most special textile workshop.
This workshop was originally set up in the palace city of Zhao State, but gradually expanded in size, so it was also moved to Shanglin Garden.
The reason why this place is special is that all the workers in other workshops are men, but all the workers in this workshop are women.
The textile workshop is divided into three parts, namely sericulture, wool and cotton.
There is nothing to say about sericulture. It has always been one of the traditional handicrafts of the Huaxia people.
Wool has gradually become the most important business in textile mills.
First of all, due to the gradual stabilization of the situation in the southern grasslands in the north of Zhao State, a large number of lambs have begun to be produced. A farm was specially set up next to the textile workshop, with tens of thousands of sheep in it, just to ensure the supply of wool.
"With so many sheep, can there be enough food?" Zhao Dan asked curiously.
The stewardess who led the way in front of Zhao Dan smiled, and said, "Your Majesty doesn't know that all the feed is purchased from merchants."
After Zhao Dan heard it, he realized that the fodder for this farm was directly purchased from some big businessmen in Zhao country. From the mouth of the female steward, Zhao Dan could even hear several super big businessmen who are well-known in Zhao country. .
"Forage is worthless, why are these big merchants willing to do this business?" Zhao Dan was even more puzzled.
The steward explained: "Your Majesty, the reason why these big merchants are willing to sell fodder is not because the fodder itself is so profitable. In fact, their fodder is provided for free."
Under the female steward's explanation, Zhao Dan finally understood.
The reason why merchants are willing to provide fodder free of charge is actually very simple. They need products from sheep.
After several years of market cultivation, the cheap and thick woolen sweaters have been widely supported by the middle and lower classes in Zhao State, and have become necessary winter clothing in Handan.
Given that Handan has always been a place that leads the trend of Zhao, it seems only a matter of time before woolen sweaters become popular across the country.
And the sheep is not just wool, the sheepskin can also be made into sheepskin mattresses, mutton is also a very good meat, and some parts of the sheep can also be used as medicine.
Speaking of this, the stewardess smiled proudly at Zhao Dan: "In this way, there are clothing merchants, butcher merchants, and medicine merchants who are willing to provide free fodder for the textile workshop. In addition, almost all wool products in Handan are now It comes from a textile workshop, so there is no need to worry about sales."
Zhao Dan understood as soon as he heard this, as expected, monopoly is the most profitable business in any business.
Zhao Dan is still very happy to see the success of this matter. After all, Shaofu is such a big stall, if there are not a few profitable industries, then it can't be justified.
After inspecting the busy wool factory, Zhao Dan was very satisfied with the scene in front of him.
This scene of hundreds of thousands of women sitting together shaking the loom and weaving wool is still very spectacular and exciting.
For a moment, Zhao Dan even had an illusion in his heart, that is, he seemed to have returned to the later life, and returned to the production line of that kind of factory.
Zhao Dan likes this feeling very much.
You must know that with years of war, Zhao Guo, or the whole of China, is now in a situation where there are more women than men, especially for adults aged 20 to 40.
In this way, there will be a lot of widows, and there are also a lot of older women who cannot get married.
Therefore, in order to prevent these girls from wasting food at home, many parents simply sold them to serve as maidservants or concubines for wealthy families.
This kind of behavior is obviously intolerable to Zhao Dan.
A factory like this is the best place to accommodate these women.
Instead of letting them be concubines or maidservants for others, it is better to let these women become the widow's own labor force and create wealth for the widow and Zhao Guo.
To some extent, this is also a way for Zhao Dan, the monarch, to compete for population with the great nobles.
Therefore, Zhao Dan highly praised the first female workshop manager in Zhao State in front of him. In addition to a generous reward, he also told her one thing: "Work hard, I will open more branch factories in the future, as long as If you can do these things well for the widow, the widow can not only add officials to your husband and children, but also reward you with a title!"
Zhao Sheng, who had been by Zhao Dan's side all the time, was taken aback when he heard the words, but didn't say much.
The stewardess was overjoyed, and hurriedly prostrated herself: "Dare you die for the king!"
Before leaving, Zhao Dan took another look at Cotton.
Cotton is a good weapon to keep out the cold. This must be taken seriously. Cotton clothes and quilts are life-saving things for ordinary people in winter.
Compared with the booming sericulture and wool spinning in full swing, the situation on the cotton side is much more deserted.
Zhao Guo has the geographical conditions for growing cotton.
In the later generations of Huaxia, there were five major commercial cotton bases, namely, the Central Hebei, South Shandong, Northwest Henan and North Plains, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the coastal plains, the Jianghuai Plain, the Jianghan Plain, and the southern Xinjiang cotton area.
Among them, the Central Hebei, South Shandong, Northwest Henan and North Henan Plains are exactly the large Central Plains area where Handan, the capital of Zhao State, is located today.
However, because the cultivation of cotton has just started, large-scale cotton cultivation still needs experience, and at the same time, the economic benefits of cotton cultivation are not yet reflected, so for the time being, the Shaofu side only draws a piece of land in Shanglin Garden. Nearly [-] mu of land is planted.
However, according to the manager here, cotton products can be produced successively from the beginning of this year, and large-scale mass production can be realized and supplied to the market in two years.
Zhao Dan thought about it, and felt that tens of thousands of acres of land sounded scary, but considering that Handan City is now a big city with a population approaching one million people, and the cotton yield per mu in this era is far inferior to that of later generations, so What can this cotton be used for?