Chapter 158: The Price of Silk

Basket after basket of white cocoons filled the warehouse. Both Wang Siniang and Lizheng were women from Jiangnan and had seen silkworm harvests before, but they had never seen one so good and smooth.

The discarded dead and sick silkworms were negligible, almost to the point of being ignored. Wang Siniang was an experienced sericulturist. According to her experience, at least one or two tenths of the silkworms were lost each season. She had never expected the method taught by Miss Li to be so effective! Not to mention the exceptionally good quality of the harvested cocoons. According to common sayings, this year’s silkworm harvest was at least twelve-tenths or more. In previous years, a harvest of seven or eight-tenths was considered a very good year.

The master’s silkworm breed was good! Miss Li’s method was also good! They had finally delivered! Both Wang Siniang and Lizheng breathed a sigh of relief. They both knew the impact of their performance this time, when they were in charge on their own, on their future status in the estate. Especially Lizheng, who was one of the six students personally taught by Zhao Yigong from the beginning. Later, with the arrival of Hening, they became the “Seven Chosen Ones.” They were the master’s personal students, and their status in the estate was different from that of ordinary servants. Everyone knew that they would inevitably become the master’s trusted subordinates in the future. Therefore, on top of their own sense of superiority, they also had a strong sense of unease. Their competitive awareness was particularly strong.

After the spring silkworm harvest, Wang Siniang gave the sericulturists a holiday. Those from the village could go home, and the servants rested for a few days to prepare for the upcoming second silkworm rearing.

Sericulture can actually be done multiple times a year. In some places with superior water and heat conditions and sufficient mulberry leaf supply, it can even be done eight seasons a year. With the climate conditions in Jiangnan at that time, four or five seasons a year was not a problem. In Huzhou, there were also farmers who raised five seasons of silkworms.

However, in actual sericulture, farmers rarely raised multiple seasons of silkworms, mostly just one. After the raw silk came on the market in June, the sericulture work would end. On the one hand, the scale of the small-peasant economy was limited. Farmers had to take care of planting and other sideline businesses, and sericulture occupied a lot of manpower. Continuous sericulture for a long time was a burden that small farmers could not bear. On the other hand, and most importantly, traditional sericulture had no clear concept of disinfection. Although there were measures such as cleaning the silkworm rooms and whitewashing with lime, the cause of silkworm diseases was not clear. The disinfection of silkworm tools and rooms was insufficient. After the temperature rose, viruses and bacteria also became more active, and the probability of silkworm diseases increased significantly.

In addition, it also involved the temperature and humidity control required for sericulture. Spring was neither cold nor hot, and the humidity was moderate. In summer and autumn, this natural advantage no longer existed, and artificial intervention was needed. This required a considerable investment in sericulture technology and capital, which was difficult for most small-scale sericulturists to achieve.

In Li Yo’er’s view, the fact that Jiangnan farmers generally only raised one season of silkworms was a waste of mulberry tree resources. With the water and heat conditions in Jiangnan, raising three seasons of silkworms was a relatively stable practice.

By the time the Shen family began to collect cocoons, the silkworms in Shen Kaibao’s house had not yet “gone up the mountain.” The whole family was on edge. Seeing the silkworms’ bodies become transparent and gradually stop eating, the whole family’s hearts were in their throats. This year’s success or failure depended on this. If the silkworm harvest was not good, the mortgaged land would have to be surnamed Cao, not to mention the huge debt they owed to Master Zhao! How would they repay him? Every time Shen Kaibao thought of this, he was so anxious that he couldn’t sleep.

A brazier was placed under the “mountain shed.” The mature silkworms on the silkworm trays were all transferred to the “mountain shed.” They were urged by the fire from below. When the silkworms on the mountain shed felt the heat, they would climb up the straw bundles. In the room, there was a rustling sound.

This was the first step in the process of the silkworms making cocoons. Those that could not mount were not healthy silkworms and could not make cocoons. Even if they did, they would sometimes just crawl around and refuse to spin cocoons. At this time, besides praying silently in their hearts, they could only leave everything to luck.

The humidity in the silkworm room was very heavy. Before the silkworms went up the mountain, they had to excrete silkworm urine, so there was a strange, damp smell in the air. But this was also a sign that the silkworms were mature and about to mount and spin cocoons, so everyone was very happy, hoping for a good year.

Three days after “going up the mountain,” the fire was extinguished as usual. Shen Kaibao’s hands trembled as he opened a corner of the reed curtain to take a look, his heart pounding. His whole family was gathered behind him, holding their breath, not even daring to breathe loudly.

Good! The straw bundles were a sheet of white. A rough look showed at least an eight-tenths harvest, maybe even nine-tenths. This was a rare good year in recent years! Shen Kaibao’s whole family was immediately filled with laughter. Now their hearts were at ease.

The whole family’s month of hunger, sleeplessness, and debt was finally not in vain.

Similar sounds of laughter rose up all over the village. This year’s silkworm harvest was excellent. Most families could harvest seven or eight-tenths. A few, like Shen Kaibao’s family, could harvest nine-tenths.

The farmers, who had been suffocated by disasters and debts, all breathed a sigh of relief. This year, they could finally make it through. The riverbanks and threshing grounds were once again filled with women and children. These people were all much thinner than a month ago, their eyes sunken, and their voices hoarse. However, the sense of relief made their spirits very high.

Everyone was thinking about their plans after harvesting the cocoons. A portion of the cocoons would naturally have to be used to repay the rice and mulberry leaves borrowed from Master Zhao. This year, they were also fortunate to have Master Zhao; otherwise, it would be hard to say how much of these cocoons would be left for themselves.

The next step, of course, was the main event for the women: reeling silk. The white silk would be sold to the silk merchants in exchange for silver and copper coins. Debts had to be repaid, and the padded clothes and summer clothes in the pawnshop had to be redeemed… The housewives and men of each family were all calculating the necessary expenses, figuring out what had to be spent and what could be postponed.

Duoduo Niang had also returned from the Shen family’s house, her face beaming. Although she had worked hard this month, the one tael of silver she had just been paid was heavy in her pocket. She had also brought back four kinds of thank-you gifts from Wang Siniang, all of which were “delicious food.” The children at home were as happy as monkeys with a new toy. There was also a bolt of Songjiang cotton cloth.

Duoduo Niang’s silkworm harvest was not bad either, with a full eight-tenths. In addition, Duoduo Niang had eaten at someone else’s house this month and had also brought back one tael of silver, which immediately became the object of envy of her neighbors. Raising your own silkworms, the profit was up to heaven’s will. It was more stable to make money by helping others raise silkworms.

Every household had now taken out their silk reeling machines. The women were busy making silk, and the village was filled with the sound of reeling machines and the steam from boiling water pots. It was a lively and happy scene.

However, everyone’s happiness did not last long. The first batch of “silk and cocoon merchants” who came along the causeway brought bad news.

The first silk and cocoon merchant to arrive was “Huang Xiaobian.” He had been sickly as a child, and his family was afraid he wouldn’t survive, so they left a small braid at the back of his head, which was only cut off after he got married. But the nickname had stuck with him.

He did not have his own silk firm. Every year, he would come to this area to buy cocoons and raw silk for several silk firms in Hangzhou city, taking a commission. He was very familiar with the villagers.

He was a decent person. Although he would inevitably cheat people, he was not excessive. If a family was in trouble and really couldn’t get by, he would be willing to lend them some money at an interest rate of one or one and a half percent without collateral for emergencies.

“Huang Xiaobian” was most familiar with Shen Kaibao’s family in the village. In the past, when he came to the village to buy cocoons and silk, he would always stay at his house. This time, he came as usual, bringing four kinds of gifts.

“Kaibao, are you selling cocoons or making your own silk this year?” Huang Xiaobian pulled Shen Kaibao to sit under a willow tree by the vegetable garden behind the Shen family’s house and asked quietly.

“Of course I’m selling silk. How much money can you get for cocoons?” Shen Kaibao said dismissively. Selling cocoons was something only families with insufficient manpower did.

“The market is not good this year,” Huang Xiaobian slapped his thigh and sighed, lowering his voice. “You probably don’t know yet, but this year the yamen in the city issued a notice, saying that this year’s silk and cocoons…”

“I know about that. What’s the market like?” Shen Kaibao was already startled. He had had a bad premonition about this year’s raw silk market. The fatigue of the silkworm season and the joy of a good harvest had once diluted this worry. This year, Huang Xiaobian’s words made him tense all over again.

Huang Xiaobian sighed again, “It’s very bad! So bad that everyone is going to lose their livelihood!”

He was literate and often traveled in the city, so his news was much more detailed than Shen Kaibao’s. This year, under the pretext of famine relief, the entire prefecture’s raw silk and cocoon trade had been handed over to the Famine Relief Bureau. Therefore, all the silk and cocoon guilds had to get an approval document from the Famine Relief Bureau before they could purchase.

“…Old brother, think about it. On the one hand, the money for famine relief has to come from this. On the other hand, from the prefect down to the members of the Famine Relief Bureau, who wouldn’t get their hands wet? Do you think this year’s market can be good?”

Therefore, this year, the guilds had jointly negotiated a public price. All the large and small guilds, as well as the “silk merchants” who went to the countryside, had to purchase at this public price. They could only lower it, not raise it.

Shen Kaibao felt as if his heart was in his throat. He asked anxiously, “Stop beating around the bush, what’s the price this year?”

“Twenty-five taels of silver per dan of silk.”

“What?!” Shen Kaibao almost jumped up. This price was less than half of last year’s. His heart sank to the bottom, and his head felt dizzy. “This is telling us sericulturists to go and hang ourselves!”

“Old brother! Don’t be anxious!” Huang Xiaobian said quickly. “This is also something that can’t be helped…”

Shen Kaibao didn’t know how he got home. A heavy sense of unease subsequently enveloped the originally very happy little village. After Huang Xiaobian, several more silk merchants came. What they said was more or less the same as Huang Xiaobian. The only thing was the price, which they were unwilling to raise by a single coin. No matter how you begged or cursed, these people all insisted on the original price without changing. What they said was also “tough”: “If we add one or two taels for you, what will we eat? The silk business is difficult this year!”