Finally, after Li Mai gave three pieces of advice, the four of them finished their dinner in peace.
Before leaving the restaurant, Madam Yu decided that the next place they would go was Yongzhou City. She told Li Mai and Zhou Quanke to stay there for another day, saying that there was a dyeing workshop in a village in the southeast of the town that they could visit.
She and Yan Yu will leave first tomorrow.
Li Mai responded.
The next day, Li Mai really took Zhou Quan to visit that dyeing workshop.
The owner's surname was Zhang. I don't know what they came here for. Li Mai just mentioned that she wanted to open a cloth shop and a garment workshop. Someone had introduced her to the dyeing workshop here, and she said she would come and take a look first.
Upon hearing this, the old man of the Zhang family became more welcoming to the two of them and arranged for his eldest son to receive them, showing them around the dyeing workshop.
The eldest son of the Zhang family was named Zhang Ang.
Zhang Ang was about the same age as Zhou Quan. Seeing that the couple were young people of similar age and were already planning to open their own shop, Zhang Ang admired them and did his best to introduce them to the twenty-four colors that his family could currently dye.
Upon hearing that his family could produce twenty-four different dyes, Li Mai asked Zhang Ang for his color catalog to take a look.
“I saw several colors that aren’t sold in the fabric shops outside, but you can dye them, so why aren’t they sold outside?” Li Mai asked curiously.
Zhang Ang shook his head. "Madam Zhou, you may not know this, but the shops outside that sell in large quantities are all those common colors. There are roughly nine major common colors and nine minor common colors, a total of eighteen kinds, which are considered relatively common dyes. We have a list of the colors that are produced in large quantities here, you can take a look."
Zhang Ang led them to his study and handed a booklet to Zhou Quan.
Zhou Quan glanced at it and handed it to Li Mai.
Li Mai looked at it carefully and was surprised to find that the largest quantity produced was actually blue cotton cloth.
"Yes, the output of blue is actually the largest. Most mansions use fine or coarse blue cotton for tailoring clothes for their servants and guards. Temples also mostly use blue for monks' robes, and many places with large numbers of people also use blue for tailoring. So every year, the cloth shops that place large orders with us need the most blue cloth."
Li Mai said "Oh," indicating that she understood.
The second is white, the third is black, the fourth is dark blue, the fifth is red, and the sixth is royal blue.
Li Mai glanced at it and wrote it down.
Li Mai thought for a moment and then asked with a smile, "Young Master Zhang, how many generations has your Zhang family been in the dyeing business?"
Zhang Ang thought for a moment, "It's the fifth generation, I guess. The dyeing business was started by my great-great-grandfather, and it has a history of more than a hundred years now."
Li Mai cast an admiring glance at him; it was truly remarkable that his family had been able to maintain this business for over a century.
"Young Master Zhang, where do you think the Zhang family ranks in the entire North, given the current scale of the Zhang family's dyeing business?" Li Mai asked with a smile.
Zhang Ang thought for a moment, "We should be able to rank second. The first place is the Jiang family's dyeing shop in Yongzhou City. They are very powerful. It is said that their dyeing shop is an entire manor. Not only is it large in scale, but it also has a lot of people. Moreover, their business can reach the south. But our Zhang family is not like that. At present, we can only follow behind the Jiang family and do a part of the business."
“Because the Jiang family owns their own cloth shop, some cloth shop owners are unwilling to cooperate with them, so they come to us,” Zhang Ang said.
“I see!” Li Mai nodded.
She pondered something: why did Sister Yu introduce herself to this place even though she knew the Jiang family and the Zhang family were rivals?
After all, they had just met Jiang Wenhan the day before and had a good chat. She even made a note of Mr. Jiang in her little notebook.
However, upon closer reflection, Li Mai understood what the fisherwoman meant. She was introducing him to more opportunities so that he could choose the people he was willing to cooperate with.
However, if either the Jiang family or the Zhang family wanted to open a cloth shop or a clothing store, they would choose the Jiang family, which has more power.
However, Li Mai had a different idea. From her own perspective, she would prefer to cooperate with the Zhang family.
One reason is that Xiabei Town is closer to Qingshi Town, while Yongzhou City requires traveling southwest for two days.
Another point is that, if the quality is the same, the products from the Jiang family might do better business.
But judging from the fabrics dyed by the Jiang and Zhang families that she had seen so far, she felt that the Zhang family's fabrics seemed to be better. However, she would know whether they were good or not once she got home and washed the fabrics she had bought from both families.
After all, when buying clothes, people want them to be comfortable and look good, and they also want them to not fade or deform after washing. Otherwise, they wouldn't be the first choice for merchants.
Li Mai has already bought a piece of fabric from the Jiang family's shop, intending to make a brocade robe for Zhou Quan. Of course, she has to wait until she gets home to have Zhou Tao and Zhao Shi make it; she herself doesn't know how.
After visiting the Zhang family's house, she also bought two bolts of cloth: one of plum blossom brocade and the other of golden lark brocade.
Both of these are of good quality, costing twenty taels of quinoa.
This was calculated by Zhang Ang based on the wholesale price.
At noon, Zhang Ang invited them to have lunch at his home. During the meal, the two also met other members of the Zhang family, some of whom were studying and others who worked in the family's dyeing workshop.
During the meal, Li Mai chatted with them about dyeing cloth, and the Zhang father and son got along quite well with Li Mai.
Before leaving in the afternoon, Li Mai wrote down a method for dyeing cherry red and gave it to him. "This is the color and method I want. Let's cooperate and I'll see the results you produce. If it achieves the color I want, I'll decide how to cooperate with you to promote this color when I come back."
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