The next day, Vitus was handling official business as usual, and suddenly received a request for an audience from Minister Trade, which was related to the development prospects of the textile industry.
Vitus was very surprised.
"In recent years, the empire has recovered Armenian Highlands, Levant, and Egypt. It has added tens of millions of people, the market is vast, and the handicraft industry is in great shape. Is there anything worth paying attention to? Pelato, let him in."
Vitus picked up the silver cup, drank the remaining coffee with milk, sat behind the desk and yawned.
After entering the door, Minister Trade put down the briefcase he carried with him, took out different cotton samples from it, and placed them on the desk for display.
The sample is divided into two parts. There are five samples on the left, arranged from high to low quality.
The first one is a piece of yellow printed cloth, with uniform color and complex and beautiful texture, similar to the Arabic style. Vitus looked back on the memory and suddenly remembered the fabric of Mamluk Sultan palace.
The second sample is slightly inferior, but it also reaches the level of high-end fabrics, and the pattern has an obvious Persia style.
The quality of the next three samples declined successively.
The last sample is not dyed, but the texture of the fabric itself is light and soft. According to the consumption level in the Eastern Roman Empire, its customer groups are wealthy farmers and middle-class citizens.
Trade Minister continued to take out five samples, placed them on the right side of the desk in order, sorted them according to quality, and compared them one by one with the cotton cloth on the left.
"The product on the right is Rome. The sample on the left is from India. Local textile merchants print and dye different patterns according to the preferences of target customers. Now, we have opened the Red Sea route and the trade routes are smooth. The textile industry of India cannot miss this profit.
In a few years, they will know the customs of Europe and print some Iris, Broom, Pomegranate Blossom and other patterns in a targeted manner, which will definitely be welcomed by the middle and upper class of Europe.
I have talked with members of the textile guild and it is expected that the local market will be taken away by India cotton."
Vitus picked up the Eastern Roman Empire cotton cloth on the right, and the smile on his face disappeared.
Indeed, the quality of the Eastern Roman Empire cotton is not as good as India cotton. If the price is the same, customers will definitely choose India cotton.
The key is price. India cotton comes across the sea, and the transportation cost is extremely high. Eastern Roman Empire textiles have local advantages, are cheaper, and have obvious competitiveness.
"It's hard to say." Minister Trade gave even worse news. "The price of India cotton cloth in Suez is cheaper than our cotton cloth. If shipped to Constantinople for sale, their price is still half a percent lower than local products."
What?
Vitus couldn't sit still at all and paced back and forth in the study. He suspected that the Trade department had remembered the wrong numbers when doing statistics. The India product spans 7,000 kilometers and the transportation cost has soared. Is the competitiveness still so strong?
"Are you sure you're not mistaken?"
Trade Minister took out two more documents from his briefcase. "This is the information I asked another group of officials to compile. This one is the feedback from the textile guild. There are some differences in the specific figures, but the results are correct."
Vitus After reading the conclusions of the other two reports, I finally realized the seriousness of the matter.
For a long time, the textile industry was Europe's most profitable handicraft industry.
When Vitus served as Achaea Despot, he began to import Iberia's Merino sheep to develop the woolen industry.
After recovering Northern Black Sea Coast, he still regarded the textile industry as the local pillar industry and invested in Spinning Jenny.
After Battle of Sakarya, Eastern Roman Empire acquired the silk producing area Bursa, as well as the cotton producing areas in the inland and southern coastal areas. The domestic textile raw materials were sufficient and the industry further developed.
It can be said that Eastern Roman Empire's textile industry was supported by him with all his efforts. It has developed from scratch to the present, and finally squeezed textiles from Venice and other countries out of the Eastern Roman Empire market, symbolizing the recovery of the local industry.
Now, the competitiveness of the Eastern Roman Empire textile industry has reached the Europe first-class level. He really could not imagine that he would lose to the India textile industry.
"Why on earth is this?"
Vitus decided to put aside other matters and visit Textile Mill in the suburbs in person, hoping to find out the reasons for his lack of competitiveness.
There are two rivers in the north of Golden Horn, called Sideros River and Barbyses River. Industries that consume large amounts of water, such as textiles and papermaking, are located here.
Vitus left the palace and traveled north along Golden Horn for a distance, and saw many small and medium-sized Galley traveling on the sea. They were flexible and fast, and were responsible for the transportation tasks from the factory area to Constantinople's north port of the city.
Although it is a suburb, the prosperity of the northern part of Golden Horn is no different from that of the city.
Dozens of factories are located here, and the number of workers, family members and small traders is close to 30,000, exceeding many large cities in Hanseatic League, such as Lübeck, Hamburg, and Bremen.
In addition, there is a small river located in the western suburbs of the city, where there is less water and some small and medium-sized workshops are gathered there.
Not long ago, a paper-making businessman was talking to Vitus. The former site of his workshop is located on the west side of the river.
Among the three rivers, the one with the largest water volume is Barbyses River (later called Kağıthane River). There are large workshops using hydraulic equipment on both sides of the river.
As the seasons change, the amount of water in the river fluctuates. This year's climate is dry and the water level in the river is lower than usual.
In order to utilize water power stably, the factory owner built an artificial waterway on the riverside to introduce the river water into the large Reservoir of the factory, always maintaining a stable water level.
The water level in the pool is constant, and the force of the water flow hitting the impeller remains unchanged, allowing the equipment to operate smoothly.
Vitus walked along the river bank for more than ten minutes and found a large Textile Mill. A wide pool was built outside. A steady stream of water hit the water wheel, making a low roar and gurgling sound.
"It seems to be Agnes's factory. But she hasn't taken care of business much recently, and has almost never mentioned anything about the textile industry."
Entering the factory area, the noise became even more noisy. When the supervisor discovered that the emperor was visiting in person, he hurried over to salute.
"I heard that there is a little trouble in the textile industry, so I came here specifically to inspect. These servants want to review your accounts and understand the detailed costs of each link."
Vitus asked some attendants to go to the office, and he himself began to visit the production process of the factory.
Compared with the Tauris period, Spinning Jenny has undergone technological iteration and is driven by water power, driving more spindles, and the production efficiency has been greatly improved again.
Not only that, the weaving factory on the right has added two Water-Powered Loom machines. They occupy a huge area, with hundreds of longitudinal yarns wrapped around the horizontal axis above, and the woven cloth hangs down from the other side. Sunlight shines into the room from the high windows, and tiny cotton wool floats in the beam.
Bang! Click!
Driven by hydraulic power, the horizontal main shaft rotates slowly. Many irregularly shaped cams are installed on the main shaft, driving the other components to rotate.
Next to the loom, two workers whose clothes were stained with cotton wool walked back and forth. Once a yarn broke, the nearest worker needed to connect it in a very short time to avoid affecting the quality of the entire cloth.
Minister Trade waved away the cotton wool in front of him and introduced the process of the Water-Powered Loom project to the emperor.
"This project was first handed over to Adrian University, but it has been in a state of stagnation for a long time. Five years and three thousand Florin were wasted, and nothing was accomplished.
In desperation, the former minister handed over the project and technical information to Nicomedia University. Three years later, someone accidentally developed Flying Shuttle. After another five years, they finally came up with a practical Water-Powered Loom."
The minister happily boasted and regarded the loom as his political achievement. Suddenly, a strange sound was made from the equipment a few meters away. The nearby guards blocked the emperor and surrounded him and slowly retreated.
At this time, the foreman ordered a worker to pull the switch to stop the spindle.
He lay down to observe the damaged area and found that there was a problem with the gear and shaft somewhere and the parts needed to be replaced.
"Oh, it takes another whole day to repair. I wasted so much money to buy two crappy machines. I spend half of the time repairing each month. The money earned in the remaining time is used to pay for parts and workers. It is equivalent to working in a parts factory. Old-fashioned looms are more stable."
After listening to the foreman's complaints, Minister Trade defended the emperor. "Well, that's what the new technology is. Moreover, this is not a design problem at all, but the size and strength of the parts are not in compliance."
The structure of the loom is complex and requires the use of many ordinary parts and high-precision parts: such as gears, bearings, and coil springs on both sides of Flying Shuttle.
The high-precision parts come from Arsenal in the suburbs of Constantinople, which has a group of old blacksmiths who are responsible for this kind of work.
The quality of parts depends on the bicycle lathe on the one hand, and on the craftsman's skill and working condition on the other.
If the craftsman is in a good mood, the pass rate of the parts will be higher. If he catches a cold today and is in poor working condition, the accuracy of the parts may exceed the deviation range, which will affect actual production..."
Trade Minister explained for a long time. Vitus became impatient and glanced at him, signaling this guy to shut up.
Vitus walked towards the loom and asked the foreman, "How many Textile Mill households in the suburbs use this kind of equipment?"
Foreman: "Currently we are the only ones using it. Four nearby factories are waiting and watching. If our looms operate normally, they will choose to follow suit.
The remaining small workshops have insufficient infrastructure. Without Reservoir, there is no stable water power, which is not suitable for driving such delicate equipment."
At this time, Minister Trade immediately intervened, saying that Bursa's textile industry was more intensive, and almost all large factories had installed new equipment, totaling more than forty units.
With continuous use, the factory improves certain designs in practice, and Arsenal improves the accuracy of parts. Sooner or later, a truly profitable Water-Powered Loom will be available.
At ten o'clock in the morning, Vitus visited all the textile processes. The attendants' accounting work had not yet ended, so he took advantage of this free time to visit other hydraulic workshops.
The shipbuilding industry is Constantinople's key industry. A large amount of wood is used. Along both sides of the river, you can often see saw blades cutting back and forth driven by water power. The generated sawdust floats on the river and slowly flows into Golden Horn along with the river.
Not only sawing facilities, but also leather and textiles will cause pollution.
Leather factories are the most polluting. Before processing leather, craftsmen need to scrape off the grease and minced meat on the surface. Then, craftsmen use lime, horse urine and other raw materials to tan the leather, producing a large amount of sewage and stench.
Barbyses River is located to the north of the palace, three kilometers away. If there is a favorable wind, the odor can spread to the palace and other urban areas.
This obviously exceeds the tolerance limit of Central Administration, which has long banned the construction of such facilities upstream of Golden Horn and restricted them to the mouth of the creek in the western suburbs.
The dyeing process of Textile Mill was seriously polluted, using a lot of dyes and Alum (mordant), causing the nearby river water to slightly change color.
However, Textile Mill relies heavily on hydraulic instruments, and they can only be located in the Barbyses River with a large amount of water. As for the pollution they produce, this is an unavoidable problem in the early Renaissance and cannot be solved until later.
"Actually, it's nothing. It's just that fishing is inconvenient. You have to ride a horse and walk a certain distance every time."
Vitus yawned and visited the large and small factories and shops on both sides of the main road. At eleven o'clock at noon, the attendant came over to submit a report, which detailed every expenditure of Textile Mill.
If it wants to compete with India cotton, the factory must reduce its total expenses by 20% to 30%, thereby lowering product prices and competing for customers in the local and neighboring markets.
The report makes two recommendations:
Improve Water-Powered Loom to make it truly practical and improve production efficiency.
The second is to reduce the cost of raw materials and expand the cotton planting area. This work is left to the Agricultural Department and local Province.
Vitus finished reading the report and motioned to Eunuch to put it away, "Leave it to Cabinet for discussion tomorrow, and call Minister Trade and Agricultural Minister during the meeting."
In his impression, Anatolia South, Levant, and Egypt are all suitable for growing cotton, and the problem of raw materials can be solved.
From now on, he hopes to see the local textile industry withstand the impact of India cotton, rather than setting artificial bans to block the import of India cotton.
There are many disadvantages to setting up a ban. First of all, Portugal has opened up a new route. Even if the Red Sea route is cut off, India cotton can enter Europe from the Africa route. Eastern Roman Empire will lose a lot of tolls, but Portugal can make huge profits.
Moreover, Red Sea Trade Route faces competition from new routes, and its share is on a long-term downward trend. If Eastern Roman Empire issues a ban, it will accelerate the decline of Red Sea Trade Route.
"The influx of India cotton into Europe is actually beneficial. Europe The textile technology of other countries is worse and they cannot compete with India cotton. After their industries are wiped out, it will be beneficial to the Eastern Roman Empire textile industry."
The textile industry of Italy and Flanders has developed slowly. A few factories have learned Spinning Jenny, but have not yet learned the more advanced Water-Powered Spinning Machine and looms.
With the influx of India cotton, their Textile Mill profits dropped, and they were even less able to squeeze out funds to purchase new equipment and apply new technologies. They fell into a vicious cycle and eventually lost this business competition.
Arriving outside the city gate, Vitus thought of another idea:
A decree was issued to increase the export tax on cotton, forcing domestic cotton to give priority to local industries and increasing the cost of raw materials for Western Textile Mill.
"Mediterranean Sea's cotton planting is concentrated in the east. There are some cotton plantations in the south of Iberia, Sicily, and Morocco, but the number is limited and cannot meet industrial needs.
This seems to be the first time that I have relied on economic means to weaken my competitors. I used to defeat my enemies head-on, but now I am suddenly not used to this method."
Vitus walked into the palace talking to himself, still yearning for a real battlefield. Defeating the opponent with an overwhelming victory would bring a sense of accomplishment far beyond conspiracy calculations.