The middle-aged man was named Zhou Gui, the owner of the Zhou family's cloth shop and also Zhou Ziqiong's father.
As her name suggests, Consort Zhou was born into wealth and status.
Not only was he handsome and wealthy, but he was also the richest man in Ruzhou City—to be precise, he was the richest merchant in Anguo. The people of Ruzhou City said that the Zhou family was as rich as a country. Although that was an exaggeration, it was enough to show how wealthy the Zhou family was!
Throughout Ruzhou City, all the cloth workshops and shops belong to the Zhou family. Moreover, Zhou Ziqiong, the eldest daughter of the Zhou family, has unparalleled talent in business. She can not only help Zhou Gui run the business and manage the cloth workshops, but also develop some novel fabrics.
The Huanhua Jade Brocade was made by her.
At that time, most of the fabrics sold in Anguo were light-colored garments. Occasionally, there were brightly colored ones, but they were mostly dyed with flower dyes. Although they looked vibrant at first, they would gradually fade after being worn, especially after washing. The colors would fade in patches, making them very unsightly.
Therefore, these dyed clothes became particularly useless and were no longer sought after. However, there was still a market demand for them, but no one had found a supplier of high-quality products.
At this time, Zhou Ziqiong's Huanhua Yujin was unveiled.
Unlike those inferior dyed fabrics, Huanhua Yujin not only has more vibrant and bright colors, but most importantly, it will not fade when hand-washed!
Therefore, after the first batch of Huanhua Jade Brocade came out, it made Zhou Ziqiong and the Zhou family's cloth shop famous!
Before Huanhua Yujin was introduced, Zhou Family Cloth Shop was just a relatively large cloth shop in Ruzhou City. However, with the popularity of Huanhua Yujin and the supply falling short of demand, Zhou Family Cloth Shop expanded its scale and became the largest merchant in Ruzhou City!
At that time, Zhou Gui took the opportunity to let Zhou Ziqiong take over the Zhou family's cloth shop business. Just when everyone thought that Zhou Ziqiong would stay in Ruzhou and stabilize the cloth shop business, Zhou Ziqiong chose to open branches of the Zhou family's cloth shop in various parts of Anguo and quickly opened up the market by relying on the advantages of Huanhua Jade Brocade.
By this time, Zhou's cloth workshop had become a behemoth among merchants.
The Zhou family has been running a cloth shop for many years and has made many kinds of cloth, but there is one kind they have never made: cotton-padded clothes.
It wasn't that the Zhou family didn't want to, but cotton was only grown by the barbarians of the Western Frontier. The barbarians of the Western Frontier regarded cotton as a treasure and would not easily pass on the planting techniques and cotton seeds to Anguo. Moreover, the climate of Anguo seemed unsuitable for growing cotton. It is said that someone once tried to grow cotton in Jiangling, but could not grow it well and had to give up.
Therefore, the cotton-padded clothes or quilts sold by Zhou's Cloth Shop, like those of other cloth shops in Anguo, were filled with cattail fluff. Not only were they uncomfortable to wear, but most importantly, they were not warm.
It can be said that the people of Anguo have long suffered from a lack of cotton.
Last year, cotton seeds somehow appeared, and suddenly people in Jinxi started to plant cotton on a large scale. Most importantly, they succeeded!
Everyone knows that the Prince of Jin is behind this.
Unfortunately, because the price was too high, no one was interested.
So Zhou Gui used his connections to secure all the cotton planted by the Prince of Jin. However, since winter had already passed when the cotton was purchased, it was stored in the warehouse.
The new cotton crop has come in again this year, and Zhou Gui once again bought all of the Prince of Jin's new cotton at a high price. Zhou Ziqiong had previously gone to pick up the cotton.
"Ziqiong, when it comes to business, I'm not as good as you, and I'm not as good as you in terms of foresight either. But in this matter, I'm going to make the decision again, because I can imagine how sought-after cotton-padded clothes will be in the future!"
Zhou Ziqiong nodded, but said at the same time, "Father, I know the benefits of cotton clothes and quilts, but cotton has only been planted in Anguo for two years, and the price is not low. It is still unknown whether the people of Anguo can accept it. We haven't used last year's cotton yet. It has become old cotton after a year. Is it okay to ask for so much now?"
Zhou Gui waved his hand with a smile and said, "Back when you made Huanhua Jade Brocade, it was much more expensive than cotton. Do you remember your father telling you that? But what happened? Even though it was expensive, Huanhua Jade Brocade was still in short supply!"
"Father...this is different..."
Zhou Ziqiong thought for a moment and said, "Things are valued for their rarity. Huanhua Jade Brocade is particularly troublesome to make, and the dye formula is unique to our Zhou family, which is why we dare to set a high price. However, no one used to grow cotton because the war between Anguo and Xijiang was intense, so they couldn't go to Xijiang to get cotton seeds. Also, everyone had heard that someone in Jiangling had grown it, but the weather and soil in Anguo were not suitable for cotton."
"Now that Prince Jin has started planting it, many people will definitely follow suit and plant it later, and the price of cotton will drop. If we buy so much at a high price now, we might lose money later!"
But Zhou Gui disagreed.
He glanced at Zhou Ziqiong and said earnestly, "Ziqiong, I know about your grudges with the Prince of Jin's mansion, but we're doing business openly. We can't just give up because of a little grudge, can we?"
Seeing that Zhou Ziqiong was about to speak, he immediately raised his hand to stop her: "Moreover, buying cotton to make quilts is not just for business, but also for the sake of the people of Ruzhou City and even the entire Anguo! So that they will have cotton clothes and quilts to wear in the winter! Therefore, not only did we buy it last year, but we bought it this year, and I will buy it again next year!"
"It's alright to suppress the cotton a bit. It's much better than letting others buy it. Besides, I believe that once our first batch of cotton-padded clothes and quilts is produced, the cotton in the warehouse will not be enough! Everyone knows that this cotton was planted by people sent by the Prince of Jin. Do you think anyone else would dare to plant it? So as long as we buy all of the Prince of Jin's cotton, we will be the only ones in this cotton-padded clothing business!"
"father--"
"Alright, Ziqiong, stop talking! This time, I'll make the decision. Besides, our family is big and powerful. Even if this cotton-padded clothing business really fails and we lose money, it's just a small loss, no big deal!"
After Zhou Gui finished speaking, he smiled and went into the mansion.
Zhou Ziqiong sighed, feeling helpless.
Upon returning home, the little maid who had previously been fiercely criticizing Jing Zhe poured Zhou Ziqiong a cup of tea and asked softly, "Miss, were you upset after being scolded by the master?"
Zhou Ziqiong shook her head and smiled, "Father is right. Perhaps it's just because of my grudge with Prince Jin that I'm being a little too cautious? This cotton-padded clothing business might really be just like Father said, booming as soon as it starts! Even if I get cheated—it's not necessarily a bad thing."
"Oh? So much cotton, so much silver, and it's not spoiled?"
"Losing several thousand taels of silver doesn't change the fact that the Zhou family is still the Zhou family. But it's a good thing that it allowed Father to see the true face of Prince Jin and stop doing business with him in the future."
Zhou Ziqiong said quietly.
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