In midsummer in July, the weather is hot, the sun makes the earth white and the trees are listless.

At noon, when the heat was unbearable, the people should have hid at home and escaped the heat under the shade of trees, but there were many white figures scattered in the cotton fields in Jiangbei.

In the endless green cotton field, white flowers bloomed. In the cotton field, a woman wearing a white sunshade hat and wearing a big cloth bag in front of her belly stood on the ridge of the field, regardless of the heat, she was joking while picking cotton.

Nearly one million mu of cotton fields in Jianghuai Cotton Industry began to explode flowers, and hundreds of thousands of people from Jiangbei were hired to come to the cotton fields to pick cotton.

At this time, the cloth bag in front of every woman's belly was stuffed with cotton and bulging cloth bags, as if she was pregnant.

In a manor of more than 100,000 acres, the shareholders of JAC Cotton Industry were inspecting the cotton fields accompanied by manager He Bin.

Seeing the harvest of the manor, everyone was smiling happily.

Zhao Ming sat among a group of women resting on the ridge of the field, chatting and laughing with the women, and the atmosphere was harmonious.

Many women, many of them had no husbands, or some older aunts, saw Zhao Ming being majestic and handsome, surrounded him and chatting around.

There is a bold aunt who is enthusiastic about telling Zhao Ming a wife.

The young and strong man in Jiangbei was abducted by the Qing army, and the ratio of men and women was seriously unbalanced. Usually, the village was either old men or half-grown boys. Young men were extremely rare. There were almost no mighty and majestic men like Zhao Ming.

The atmosphere in Jiangnan and Jiangbei is relatively open. When the aunts saw Zhao Ming, they couldn't help but feel heart-warming and said teasing words.

Seeing this, He Bin couldn't help but scold, "You wives, hurry up and pick cotton when you have rested, don't be rude!"

The women chuckled and scattered. Before leaving, the aunt touched Zhao Ming's strong chest.

Zhao Ming looked at the women who left with a smile and laughed. When they entered the cotton field, he smashed his mouth and said, "The people's enthusiasm is very high! It seems that they have come out of the trauma."

He Bin said: "Except a small number of these female workers are hired for a long time by the company, most of them are temporarily recruited. The company stipulates that every pound of cotton is given half a cent. A female worker can pick 150 pounds of cotton a day, earn two silver dollars a month, and some can earn three silver dollars. This is more than the men who work hard on the wharf, so they are naturally enthusiastic. Now women, children, elderly and weak in Jiangbei are willing to help pick cotton, and they do not need to send people to urge them. They all pick from morning to night, with their families and their families."

Zhao Ming smiled and nodded, "This way of working more can really encourage the enthusiasm of the people to work. It can also improve efficiency and save costs!"

JAC Cotton Industry only needs to hire people during busy farming and does not have to pay monthly salary in normal times, which greatly reduces the cost and will definitely increase competitiveness.

He Bin was recognized by Zhao Ming and was happy. He also introduced: "The company adopted the model of large manor management to uniformly dispatch planting, irrigation and picking. The cost per mu of land is 30% less than that of Jiangnan, but the harvest is similar. Therefore, even if the cotton price drops a little, the company still makes a profit and is more competitive than Jiangnan."

The land in Jiangnan is in the hands of each household, and it is impossible to achieve unified planting in large areas, and the land costs are also high. It is impossible to plant large estates like Jiangbei.

Zhao Ming nodded slightly, "The population in Jiangbei is relatively small and the land is large, which is suitable for promoting large manors and farms. While the population in Jiangnan and the land per capita are large, it is suitable for cotton spinning and weaving and opening workshops. In the future, Jiangnan and Jiangbei will complement each other and will inevitably become more prosperous."

After hearing Zhao Ming's words, everyone couldn't help but feel confident, as if they had seen Jianghuai Cotton Industry control the cotton planting in Jiangbei.

However, this is not easy, because there are already many jealous merchants who are jealous of JAC Cotton and cannot buy stocks. They have also bought a lot of land and started planting large estates.

At this time, a Hui merchant couldn't help asking: "Manager He, how much cotton the company expects to collect this year?"

He Bin smiled and said, "The first time this year is a large-scale planting, and there are still shortcomings in many places. However, this year, it is enough sunshine, so it should be able to harvest about 10 million kilograms."

This year, Jiangbei is the same as usual, with little precipitation. If you plant rice, the harvest will definitely not be ideal, but if you plant cotton, you will get a bumper harvest.

Someone next to him immediately started to settle the accounts, "One pound last year was six cents, which is sixty cents, which is sixty cents. Wouldn't it be sold for 6 million silver dollars?"

The shareholders were suddenly in a fit of excitement, and those who did not sell their stocks couldn't help but secretly thank them, but fortunately the stocks were not sold.

Such performance is now only a start, and it is not a dream to rise to 100 taels per share.

Some of them couldn't help but regret it. The shareholders who bought some stocks regretted it and wanted to slap themselves in a big mouth.

Zhao Ming reminded: "The account cannot be settled like this. This year, JAC Cotton Industry has a bumper harvest. With so much cotton pouring into the market, cotton prices will definitely fall."

A slightly fat Huishang shareholder said: "That won't be much lower. A piece of cloth is three or two feet tall and one or eight inches wide, and it takes about three kilograms of cotton. Songjiang alone produces 30 million pieces of cotton a year, which requires 90 million kilograms of cotton. Songjiang alone produces less than 30 million kilograms of cotton, which is a huge gap. In recent years, the production of cotton in Songjiang has been increasing every year. It also needs to buy cotton from overseas and Henan, and the price of cotton has also risen every year. Our Jiangbei is close to Jiangnan and has a cost advantage, and it will drop to 40 cents at most, and it will not be less."

The cotton textile and silk weaving industries make money, and Hui merchants have long wanted to intervene, so they conducted a survey on the entire Jiangnan cotton textile industry.

The Hui merchant who spoke was Wu Chongde, a great master of the Wu family in She County, Huizhou. Many shareholders sold their shares when the stock rose by 30 taels, but not only did he not sell them, but instead earned a lot of them, and he got 10,000 shares per person.

Zhao Ming looked at the fat man in front of him, but he didn't expect that he knew more deeply than he did, so he couldn't help but write down his name.

Zhao Ming smiled and said, "It's good that this is the best. This time, the court and everyone made money. Soon, the court will establish Lianghuai Salt Industry and Lianghuai Mining Industry. You will also subscribe to Lianghuai Salt Industry and Lianghuai Mining Industry!"

Wu Chongde said: "Your Highness is giving you food, and the villain will definitely subscribe actively to try to get the original shares!"

Zhao Ming nodded slightly, quite satisfied, "Okay! The court will not let you suffer any losses!"

Although the founder of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Taizu adopted a policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, it failed to suppress the development of commerce.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, several major merchant gangs had formed in the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

There are Shaanxi merchants who are engaged in foreign trade and silver exchange, there are Shanxi merchants who are engaged in grain trade and transferring rice and grain from Chu and Jiangxi, Zhejiang merchants who are engaged in textile and maritime trade, Fujian merchants who are smuggling at sea, and Hui merchants who are traveling all over the world, selling salt and goods.

Previously, Zhao Ming was able to rise mainly because of the support of gentry and businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and Zhao Ming also reciprocated his favor, which gave Jiangsu and Zhejiang merchants a lot of convenience.

However, as Zhao Ming entered Nanjing, he became the central ruler from the separatist forces, and needed to check and balance all parties and strengthen the central government, which could not meet the further requirements of the gentry and merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and a rift appeared between the two.

In order to prevent the gentry and businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Zhao Ming became a Donglin interest group and intended to support other business groups to check and balance with them.

This made many gentry and businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang begin to be dissatisfied with Zhao Ming.

Suzhou, Jiangsu and Zhejiang Association Hall, Zhejiang Business Camp.

Wang Duo, Zhao Yilong and other gentry gathered together, and each of them looked bad.

"The price of cotton has fallen! Allah earns at least 100,000 taels less!" a gentleman said with a broken face.

Zhao Yilong also suffered a great loss, so he couldn't help looking at Wang Duo, "Brother Wang has to think of a way to recover the loss!"

...
Chapter completed!