Ang Lee continued to observe the rice husking workshop, observing the efficiency of the workshop. From time to time, he would check the results of the processing and give some comments.
After walking around, Ang Lee had a basic understanding of the workshop's situation. Overall, he was quite satisfied. However, this was also satisfaction under the current conditions. This kind of backward processing method was too far away in front of the machines. There was simply no comparison.
"How much is the monthly wage of the workers here?"
Ang Lee looked at the Su family's housekeeper and asked.
"Replying to Assistant Minister Li, each person receives three strings of money per month. If they do well, there will be additional rice as a reward."
The Su family's housekeeper said.
"Three strings of money per month, that is one hundred copper coins per day. The current price of rice is about ten copper coins per bushel. A bushel of rice is fifteen copper coins to twenty copper coins. Excluding the weight of the rice husk, a bushel of rice is only five copper coins. Once it is fifty copper coins, the maximum amount of rice that a person can process in a day is two hundred and fifty copper coins. Of which, the cost of labor takes up one hundred copper coins, accounting for a full forty percent! It is indeed a large proportion. No wonder you grain farmers are clamoring for machines. "
Ang Lee said.
The Su family's housekeeper nodded repeatedly in agreement. He claimed that the labor cost was too expensive and accounted for too much of the cost. If it wasn't for the labor cost, the price of rice and rice would not be double, and the profits would be higher.
This was a very real problem. Because the labor cost was too much, it led to nearly half of the increased value of rice being processed into rice being accounted for by the labor cost. This greatly reduced the profits of grain farmers and merchants. At the same time, it was also the main reason why the price of rice was much higher than that of rice.
In the past, when labor was relatively low, the price difference between rice and rice was relatively small. Commoners could pound rice themselves when they had nothing to do. But now, it was different. Even the commoners at the bottom of the capital bought rice directly. Those who chose to buy cheap rice were in the minority.
This was mainly because there were too many workshops. Many of the commoners at the bottom were busy working in the workshops to earn money. Even the women at home had gone to find work. As a result, they really did not have the time to pound rice, nor did they have the energy to do so. Just like in the society of the future, there was no rice to be sold at retail on the market. Even if there was, they would not be able to sell it because no one had the time to buy spring honey. Everyone was very busy, not to mention shelling rice, even if they bought rice, they would not have the time to cook. With just a click, takeout would be delivered to their door. This was much more convenient than cooking by themselves.
It was known that in the previous capital, only families with good conditions would directly buy processed rice. Most of the families bought rice and pounded the rice themselves. Many old people in the capital still had tools to pound rice at home, but they had been abandoned because they had not been used for a long time. They were even covered with leaves and dust. Some people sold this useless thing, and some people found it troublesome and threw it away directly. Of course, the people who threw away the pounded rice were rich families with better conditions. Even if the poor did not use it, they would keep it at home and would not throw it away casually. After all, they spent money to buy it. It was a pity to throw it away. Even if it was useless, they were reluctant to throw it away. The poor would always have this bad habit of hoarding garbage. It was also a habit that they developed when they were poor in their early years. They might not be able to change it for the rest of their lives.
A slight habit of hoarding useless things was nothing. It would not have much impact on their lives. However, if this habit of hoarding garbage was more serious, then it would be worse. In the news of later generations, there would often be reports of people who loved to hoard garbage. They would even fill their house to the brim. There was not even a place to walk. At night, they would sleep on top of garbage. The stench in the house was very strong, and it was very unbearable.
People like this who hoarded garbage and seriously affected their quality of life were definitely sick. Normal people would not do this kind of thing. Only people with mental illness would fill their entire house with garbage and turn their small home into a garbage dump.
When the housekeeper of the Su family heard that Ang Lee wanted to develop a rice husking machine, he was very happy. He quickly said, "Assistant Minister Li, if there is a rice husking machine, our workshop should have a maximum of 50 people. We can save a lot of money. The most important thing is that we can work fast enough. If we encounter a big business, we can also accept it. Now, because the speed of rice processing is limited, if we encounter a big customer, we can only give it to others or cooperate with several big grain sellers to provide rice to the big customer."
"I heard that the wages in Suzhou are relatively low. Why not directly process it in Suzhou and then ship it to Beijing in large quantities? Won't this save a lot of money? "
Ang Lee opened his mouth and asked.
In the era of the Tang dynasty, where transportation was getting more and more convenient, if they chose to go by water, it would take a long time to transport the rice to Beijing. But now that there was a railway, the efficiency of transportation was greatly improved. It was not difficult to directly transport the rice to Beijing.
So many merchants' goods need to go through this route, especially fruits and vegetables. If they go through the water route to the capital, they will spoil. Therefore, they have to prioritize their transportation. And our food won't spoil in a short period of time, so we naturally can't compete with them. So the rice we transport from Suzhou all goes through the water route. Sometimes, there will be some rice further away, but the quantity is not too much. The main thing is that we're worried that it won't be easy to preserve it on the road. If it spoils and becomes infested, it won't be good. "
The little housekeeper was telling the truth. Although the Tang dynasty had built a new railway with a powerful transportation capacity, there were only a few lines, and a lot of materials needed to be transported by this road. Therefore, it was destined that many materials, especially large materials, were difficult to be transported by this line. There was no way if the transportation capacity was not enough. Powerful people with strength and background could naturally compete for the transportation capacity of the railway, but ordinary businessmen could not compete for it. Or it could be said that they had to wait for a long time, or even directly refuse to be transported. Even if the imperial court increased the number of trains, it could not meet the increasing transportation demand.
Ang Lee was naturally very clear about the lack of transportation capacity, but it was not easy to change this situation, because it was not so easy to build a railway. It was a huge project, and each line required a lot of real money. In the case of limited funds, naturally, they could only satisfy the most difficult and important lines first, and delay the construction of the less important lines.
The construction of the railway required a lot of resources and funds, and there were so many rivers and rivers in the Tang dynasty. Railway bridges must be built on these rivers to allow the trains to pass. As for building bridges on big rivers, it was easy to imagine the difficulty, and the resources and funds needed were not low. Therefore, there were only a few bridges on the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. The number of bridges on the Yangtze River and the Yellow River could be counted with one hand. As long as there were not enough bridges on these big rivers, the passage of the trains would be greatly limited, and the bridges on the rivers would become the bottleneck of the railway traffic. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, in addition to building more railways, more bridges on the rivers should be built. They could not let the rivers hinder the development of the traffic in the Tang Empire.
However, whether it was the construction of roads or bridges, it needed to be done slowly. It could not be rushed, and it was useless to be anxious. The funds and resources were limited. Even if the transportation requirements were met, it would be difficult to meet other aspects.
"Oh, you are worried that the rice will be damaged in the long-distance transportation, so you are transporting rice. This is really a good idea. Rice is much more delicate than rice. If it gets damp on the road, it will be difficult to handle."
Ang Lee said with approval.
"Assistant Minister Li, that rice shelling machine must be very difficult! How long will it take to tinker with it? "
The Su family's little housekeeper asked.
Obviously, this guy was very concerned about this kind of machine. Although he was only a little housekeeper of the Su family, he was very loyal to his master. He sincerely hoped that his master would be well.
This kind of loyal servant was very common in ancient times. Because since ancient times, there has been the saying of loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, rationality, and trust. Loyalty and filial piety were especially important to ordinary people. To be loyal to one's master and filial piety to one's parents and elders was the norm for ordinary people. Only by being loyal to one's master could one gain the trust of one's master, and their position would be more stable. But more importantly, they were instilled with the idea of loyalty since childhood. Even if they grew up, there would not be much change. In the future, people like this who were very loyal to their master were very difficult to find. Everyone was loyal to themselves, and it was very difficult to be loyal to others. Or it could be said that loyalty was valuable, which was also a false loyalty.
When the boss could give the employees enough benefits, the employees would be loyal to the boss. If the boss could not give the employees what they wanted, then the employees would be loyal to other bosses and abandon their original boss. This was the principle of putting benefits first. People who were foolishly loyal did not exist in the future.
In the Tang dynasty, there were many people who were foolishly loyal. This was a group of people who were poisoned by the idea of loyalty. In their eyes, it seemed that only those who were loyal to their masters were qualified servants. If they had disloyal thoughts, it would be treacherous.
Ang Lee looked at the housekeeper who was loyal to his master and said easily, "It's not difficult to study the rice shelling machine. It's just that I don't have time for now. It's spring plowing now. When the autumn harvest comes, this kind of machine will almost be ready. At that time, your workshop will be able to use it."
"Oh, that's very good. It will definitely be much faster with the machine than with the millstone."
Housekeeper Su said happily.
"It's at least ten times faster, maybe even a hundred times faster. It also depends on the size of the machine. For example, the small carts you have here can only hold up to two kilos of rice, but the big carts outside can transport twenty kilos of rice. That's the difference."
Ang Lee said.
"A hundred times better, a hundred times better. A hundred times faster. A machine can reach the capacity of a hundred millstones here. The faster the speed, the better!"
Housekeeper Su said.
Ang Lee looked at the craftsmen who were working and suddenly said with a sigh, "If the machine is made, these people will lose their jobs. Only a few people can stay. Am I doing a good thing? Or am I doing something bad? "
After that, he looked at Housekeeper Su.
Housekeeper Su quickly said, "Of course it's a good thing. Now there are workshops everywhere in the capital. As long as they are not lazy people, they can always find a job. It's not a problem to support themselves and their families. Assistant Minister Li doesn't have to think about them. Hehe!"
Since ancient times, every era had a very strong concept of superiority and inferiority. People with high status were respected, while people with low status were inferior. This was also because ancient rulers wanted to enslave the people so that they would not rebel because of dissatisfaction, so they came up with such a brainwashing idea. Naturally, the effect was very good. Under the condition of having enough food and drink, the people rarely rebelled. They were all obedient people of the imperial court. Unless they could not live anymore, they would revolt. Moreover, it was not the people who revolted, but some charlatans who pretended to be the new Venerables and made many promises to the people. Only then did these people who could not live anymore organize these people and form an armed force to change the dynasty.
Ang Lee naturally knew that machines would replace human labor. Therefore, he would not stop researching machines for the sake of these people's livelihood. Moreover, he wanted to speed up the research of more practical machines so that the Tang Empire could develop faster.
"It seems that you are really in urgent need of rice shelling machines. How many such rice shelling workshops are there in the capital?"
Ang Lee asked Housekeeper Su.
Steward Su paused for a moment and then said, "In reply to Assistant Minister Li, I am also not very clear. However, I believe that I understand the general situation. There are no less than a hundred rice hulling workshops of all sizes. There are definitely no more than ten workshops that are larger than our Su family's workshop. There may be some small processing workshops outside the city."
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