Chapter 855 The Story of Brocade

The holiday is an ordinary holiday for the imperial court, and it takes about one day off every ten days.

It means that officials pay attention to their image, so they have to spend a day taking a shower and changing clothes every once in a while; however, taking a bath does not require a whole day, and taking a vacation is just a more elegant speech.

Zhu Gaoxu was not worth it either, so he left the palace and went to the Shenjia Liyuan by the Qinhuai River.

This time, the person in charge of guarding was not Zhang Sheng, but Du Erlang.

Du Erlang is a drama fan and often goes to Liyuan to listen to operas and is very familiar with that kind of place.

The person who received Zhu Gaoxu was Chen Xu herself. It is said that she did not come here often because the business of Chen Xu's two families is far more than one pear garden.

Today's theaters and restaurants are very lively, and there are a large number of officials and scholars in the capital. It is the time to make friends and play on holidays.

Zhu Gaoxu heard that Li Louxian would not go to the theater today, so he went to the private room near the Qinhuai River with Chen Xu.

Chen Xu wore a loose robe with dark blue satin, and her clothes style was like an elderly landlord and noble lady.

However, she was born with weak bones and plump skin, with fair skin, and delicate edges. She dressed up like this with a unique charm, as if she had restrained her beauty.

Or maybe it is the appearance of a woman and it cannot be affected by clothes.

Chen Xu said: Now Li Louxian’s name is not as loud as in Kunming City. On a good day like Muyou, the shopkeeper of Liyuan would not arrange for her to come on stage, and would leave it to someone who is more popular to show up.

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and said casually: The market in the capital is even bigger, and there are crouching tigers and hidden dragons in every field.

Chen Xu smiled and said: It’s not that Li Lou sang as good as other people’s family. She is getting older and her beauty is weak. Skills are of course important, but appearance must not be missing. If the emperor likes her singing, I will ask her to accompany her and sing specifically for the emperor.

Zhu Gaoxu said: Forget it, there is no need to be so troublesome.

After hearing this, Chen Xu said: She has nothing to do today, so I will call her over in a while.

At this moment, a tick sound sounded from the door. Chen Xu got up and opened the door, and saw that it was Du Erlang.

After the two of them greeted each other, Chen Xu walked out of the door and ordered another person in the corridor.

Du Erlang entered the door and went up to say: Master, I saw Shangshu Xia.

Chen Xu, who had just returned to the court, spoke: Our people didn't recognize them.

Zhu Gaoxu said: What a coincidence.But there is no need to pay attention to Xiabutang. If he sees you, he will say hello and don’t tell him that I am here too.

Du Erlang clasped his fists and said: I will accept the order.

Zhu Gaoxu turned to Chen Xu and said: Mrs. Chen is like a private club, a place for private friends. I and Xiabutang were not as close to their personal friendship. When I met in such a place, they were both embarrassed and it was better not to see each other.

Chen Xu replied.

Zhu Gaoxu asked again: Mu Sheng lives in the capital now, is he still here?

Chen Xu turned his head and shook it gently, saying: What's the purpose?

It makes sense.Zhu Gaoxu said thoughtfully.

At this time, he reached into his arms, took out a few pieces of paper, and said: I am really serious about visiting today.

Mrs. Chen put down the teapot in her hand, took it over, looked around and asked: What?

standard.Zhu Gaoxu thought about it and explained that workshop products require a set of rigorous and unified standards. We will formulate them first. In the future, all workshops at home and abroad can only use our rules.Start with measurement.

The industry controlled by the Chen Xu family is generally called the Chen Xu Business Gang.

It seems to be just a private business gang, but in fact it contains the share of the nobles (Yao Fang's family) and the royal family; in addition to the share of the shopkeepers of the Shen family and the Xu family, the large share of the Chen Xu family owns, and the heir is Zhuang Concubine Chen Baoyan, which will become the property of the royal family in the future.

So in Zhu Gaoxu's eyes, the Shenxu Business Gang was not an official business, but it was also an integral part of the court's industry and commerce.

The Zhu family will slowly eat up the industry of Chen Xu's family, but their eating habits are obviously much gentler than dealing with Chen Wansan and Xu Fujiu.

Zhu Gaoxu moved a seat and walked from the opposite side to the chair next to Chen Xu's family. Chen Xu looked at him sideways and then acquiesced.

He approached Chen Xu's family and pointed to the symbol above and said: This is an Indian number (Arabic), used to keep accounts and tables, which is more intuitive and concise than Chinese characters. In total, Chinese characters can be used to increase the difficulty of correction.

There is a formula here, which sets the density of water as unit measurement; that is, the volume of water "per cubic foot" is one pound.The volume of water per cubic foot is one liter.

In the past, there were many differences in sizes, including the sizes of construction, land and tailoring, and there were also differences in different places.

However, the Iron Factory of the South Station of the Shouyusi has unified its size. In the future, we will use the size of the iron factory, based on the decimal inch, rule of thumb.

The original weighing is more complicated, and it is in hexadecimal, and it also varies from place to place.The weight of jin, liang, money and cents should be changed to decimal system, which can be more accurate and unified within the measurement of the workshop system.

Just then, Li Lou knocked on the door and came in first.

She stepped forward to bow and bow, and Zhu Gaoxu made a move to help her, asking her to avoid the gift.

I saw that Li Louxian was indeed aging more than when she was in Yunnan. She had thick makeup on her face, but the skin on her neck did lose its luster and the fine lines were obvious.

Zhu Gaoxu felt that Li Louxian was also a pretty person. Fortunately, Chen Xu treated her with a human touch and did not abandon her.

Chen Xu took the manuscript paper and said: What the emperor wants me to do, I should follow it.

When Li Lou first saw that the two were still talking, he sat down next to him tactfully and started making tea.

Chen Xu said again: When I was discussing affairs with the two clans, I also talked about the emperor, which was different from the previous emperors. Everyone didn’t believe it. How could the emperor support the merchants?

Zhu Gaoxu flashed with inspiration and said: I remembered a joke.Once upon a time there was an emperor who used brocade to wipe it with...

Chen Xu immediately smiled awkwardly. Li Lou, who was doing something, had too much makeup on his face and could not see his face, but she couldn't help but quietly glance at Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Gaoxu ignored them and continued: Later, the emperor felt that he should be simple and economical, so he issued an order to cancel this fee.Unexpectedly, it caused dissatisfaction among many people.The female worker who weaving brocade said that they had no wages, while the farmers who planted mulberry and raised silkworms said that the cocoons had accumulated a lot and they had been working in vain for a year.

Chen Xu's eyes flowed, and then her eyes drooped slightly. She thought for a while and said, "I'm sorry, I'll speak frankly." If you continue to make brocade, no one will get any benefits. The money received by the Weaver Girl and the farmers are all taxes collected by the county magistrate from other places, and part of it must be intercepted. If the people had ten cents to buy things; if the ten cents were gone, the niece and farmers could only spend five cents. As a result, the businessmen in the county are even more difficult to sell and the business tax is paid less.

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and said: It makes sense, madam is very knowledgeable.

Chen Xu smiled and said: The emperor is also good at telling stories. No wonder he can write a playbook for Concubine Shu together with King Ning.

Excessive awards and over-priced awards.Zhu Gaoxu said with a smile.

He continued to say quietly, let’s change the story.The emperor who likes to use brocade in the toilet is the emperor of another country; but that country cannot make brocade by itself and needs to be purchased from our country.

Chen Xu said: This is a good thing for us.

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and said: If this ten cent was minted by our mint, then in order to buy this brocade, other countries need to sell grain or other things in exchange for ten cents.After the coins left the factory, they walked around. As a result, a batch of goods from foreign vassals were added to our market, and ten cents were flowing to farmers, weaver girls, and county governments, and everyone's life was better.

Chen Xu said softly: What the emperor said is extremely true.

Zhu Gaoxu continued: If there is no trade, the brocade produced by the Weaver Girl and farmers will be useless and will not get any benefits. Will they still work in the future?

The monarchs and ministers of all dynasties value agriculture and suppress commerce, and had another set of ideas.Let’s ignore other reasons, just from the perspective of governing the country, those people are trying to protect the population of growing grain and increase grain production, and then promote population growth in the past; while merchant trade itself does not produce grain and cost, so it is useless.However, this set of ideas has loopholes, and the superiors ignore the enthusiasm of the people to work.

He paused and said: It is said that during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, a large number of common people were slaves, and the monarchs and ministers forced slaves to work, and they could simply take away all the remaining food and goods.

As a result, during the Warring States Period, some princes turned slaves into commoners, and the food that the commoners harvested could be retained except for food taxes; the more commoners planted, the more they obtained.In this way, the princes found that their families had obtained more food and wealth because the common people were more willing to produce food.

Chen Xu listened with relish, and she might think it was very fresh.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu continued: After the prosperity of industry and commerce, it became even more powerful. It not only stimulates domestic production, but also found ways to gain real profits from other countries.Otherwise, it would be meaningless to invade other countries. During the Yongle period, the imperial court occupied Annan Kingdom, and the result was a year-round loss; there was no possibility of profit, and there was a lot of complaints from the government, the opposition, and at home and abroad.Because of the establishment of county systems and direct collection of grain taxes in Annan Kingdom, the cost of establishing an official garrison was too high and there were too many resistances.

If our country first takes advantage of the trade, it will allow officials and people to spend less time working and get more wealth. This is the fundamental way to change the hardships of the people. What is the way to confiscate bureaucrats, merchants, and wealthy households and distribute them to the poor is to drink poison to quench thirst, which will only dampen enthusiasm and curb subsequent production, and everyone will fall into a more difficult situation together.

After hearing this, Chen Xu said softly: No matter whether the priest’s method is effective or not, your idea is indeed different from those carnivorous people. People are concerned about how to keep their own benefits tightly and stabilize their own status. Who is really concerned about the difficulties of the common people?

It's just a normal human nature.Zhu Gaoxu said, then do you believe in my heart?

Chen Xu's face turned slightly red, and he nodded slightly without saying a word. Zhu Gaoxu stroked his forehead, suddenly confused, and then woke up.