If the telegraph wants to recover the cost, it must rely on the power of the merchants, which is the same routine as the original railway recovery cost, when the railway was built, the cost was also extremely high, but with the large use of the merchant group, the cost was quickly recovered.

Among them, more than ninety percent of the income is obtained for the merchants to transport goods, and the passenger income of the transport personnel is relatively much lower, among them, most of the people at the bottom take the train, and the railway bureau is not profitable, which is a little welfare given by the imperial court to the ordinary people, and the people at the bottom have no money, if the price is high, it is estimated that they will not be able to sit down, so that the people's travel is too inconvenient.

However, the price of train tickets can also be distinguished according to the advantages and disadvantages of the carriages, but the telegram is the same, and the price seems to be difficult to distinguish, but in fact, it can be distinguished, and there is a distinction between urgent telegrams and ordinary telegrams.

Although the cost of sending the telegram is the same regardless of the type of telegram, there is a difference in the order of sending and the later delivery.

In the case of a limited number of telegraphs, if there are many people sending telegrams together, the order can be added to the price, and if you want to send out the contents of your telegram earlier, you can pay more to achieve it.

Similarly, when the content of the telegram is transmitted to the destination county, it is also necessary for someone to send the content of the telegram to the receiver, a county town is not big, it is not small to say small, for the letter within the county, it is not difficult to send it on the same day, but for the letter in remote villages, if the number of messengers is insufficient, it is likely to be delayed for a few days, for example, send a few villages today, and send another few villages tomorrow, so that the circle down, the letter may be delayed for many days. This is a very common phenomenon in many villages in later generations.

For ordinary people, it is not a big deal to receive a letter a few days late, but for many businessmen, it is a heavy loss for half a day, and they attach great importance to the timely delivery of news, so it also provides an opportunity for the imperial court to distinguish the grade of the telegram.

At that time, according to the order of priority of dispatch and delivery, the telegram can be divided into several levels of ordinary, urgent and special express, and the time corresponding to each level is different, the fastest of the special express, the faster of the urgency, and the slowest of the ordinary speed, and the price, naturally the most expensive of the special express, the more expensive of the expedited, and the cheapest of the ordinary.

According to such a price deployment, when ordinary people use telegraphs, they will definitely choose the cheapest ordinary type, and when businessmen deliver news, they will generally choose the urgent type with a higher level of service, as for big businessmen and more urgent cases, it is inevitable to use the special express, and the imperial court to transmit government decrees, all with free urgent telegrams, this is the privilege of the imperial court, ordinary people and businessmen are incomparable.

After Li Ang said what he thought of ordinary telegrams, urgent telegrams and express telegrams, the ministers around him all recognized it, and the trains were divided into high-end and ordinary, which could reflect the difference between nobles, merchants and ordinary people, and the same difference could be reflected in the field of using telegraphs.

Although businessmen have money and can get better service treatment than ordinary people, but the court and nobles have supreme power, which is not comparable to businessmen, whether businessmen do first-class or use urgent telegrams, it costs a lot of money, and nobles and officials above the third rank can directly take the first class of the train for free, without spending a penny, and even have a higher priority than merchants, as for the imperial court, it is possible to get the highest priority of the express telegram for free, as long as the imperial court needs to send a report, All the businessmen's messages are to be in the back row.

"Express telegram, urgent telegram, ordinary telegram, Li Shilang's idea is really too second, how to determine this price? How much is the appropriate amount to charge for an express telegram? How much is the right time to expedite once? And ordinary telegrams. ”

A minister asked.

Before Li An could answer, a minister next to him interjected: "The price can't be too high, it can't be too low, it's too high for businessmen to use it, if it's too low, ordinary people come to send telegrams every day, which will greatly occupy resources, especially at the beginning, there are not many telegraphs, and the price is naturally a little more expensive." ”

"That's right, the price can't be too cheap, the early stage should be so high that ordinary people are reluctant to use, unless there is an urgent need to use, such a price is appropriate, this is still an ordinary telegraph, urgent to make ordinary businessmen feel expensive, as for the urgent telegraph, to make big businessmen dare not use it at will, after more telegraphs, and then gradually reduce the price."

Li An opened his mouth and said, thought for a while, and then said: "An ordinary telegram costs 200 wen once, an urgent one costs 500 wen, and as for the urgent one, it costs a consistent money, this price is already very expensive, I don't know how many people are willing to use it!" ”

This price, that is, Li An said casually, did not go through systematic calculations, nor did he consider how long it would take to return to the cost, that is, to mark a very high price first, so that the people of Datang knew that telegraph machines are very expensive items, and the cost of using telegraphs is also extremely high.

Of course, Ang Lee also has every reason to believe that as long as the telegraph is implemented, there will definitely be the first person to eat crabs, for many wealthy people with millions of dollars, it is not a big deal to take out the usual money to try it, so as to reflect the difference of their businessmen, directly compared with the imperial court, as for ordinary people, they will definitely not spend that unjust money, unless there is an emergency, and the road is relatively long, and it will cost more to send someone to notify directly, in this case, they will choose to use the telegraph to deliver news.

And then after the popularization of the machine, the price of the telegram can be appropriately reduced, so that ordinary people, as long as there is a certain demand, will choose to use the telegraph to transmit the message, especially the people who are far away and have communication needs, it is even more necessary to send the telegram to deliver the message.

Since ancient times, there is a saying that the pigeon is used to transmit important news, because the pigeon is flying in the sky, the speed is faster than the horse, and the speed of transmitting the message is naturally faster, but even if the speed of the pigeon is fast, it can not be compared with the speed of the telegraph, the short-distance transmission of the message, the pigeon and the horse have a great advantage, but once the distance breaks through dozens of miles, the advantage of the telegraph is that these animals can not be compared.

In addition, although the speed of the pigeon is also relatively fast, but there is also a fatal weakness, that is, the distance of transmitting information is very limited, and the long-distance message transmission can not be realized.

This is because the principle of the pigeon to transmit the message is to take advantage of the pigeon's nature of returning to the nest, rather than the pigeon itself will send the letter, that is, before sending the letter, the pigeon should be taken away, when the letter needs to be sent, the letter will be tied to the pigeon's leg, and then the pigeon will be released, when the pigeon flies to the sky, it will rely on its own judgment of the environment to find its nest when it leaves home, and by the way, the letter will be taken home, thus playing the role of transmitting the letter.

As for how the carrier pigeon is positioned, there are many kinds of scientists' statements, some say that the carrier pigeon has a magnetic field discrimination function, some say that the pigeon's eyesight is better, and some say that it is the sense of smell, but most people think that it is the role of the magnetic field, because the sense of sight and smell can not control dozens of miles! Only a magnetic field can ensure that carrier pigeons can find their nest dozens of miles away.

In addition, since the carrier pigeon transmits the message, it is to take advantage of the pigeon's return to the nest characteristics, then, it is enough to show that the transmission of the carrier pigeon has a unidirectional nature, can only be transmitted from one place to another, and can not be transmitted back again.

But in fact, there are also some carrier pigeons that transmit messages in both directions, these pigeons are the result of training from childhood, their nests are in one place, but the place where they are raised is in another place, so that these carrier pigeons will run back and forth in two places, so that they can pass the message to humans by the way.

But this two-way transmission of the message of the pigeon, can only achieve a short distance of transmission, if the place to eat and sleep is too far away, the pigeon is unbearable, the difficulty of training will be great, so, as long as the distance is a little farther, you can only use the pigeon for unilateral transmission.

However, the characteristics of the pigeon are fixed, and the human IQ is flexible, even if the distance is farther, you can find a solution, that is, in the two places where communication is needed, build a pigeon nest, and then, bring these pigeons to each other's location, so that the pigeon can communicate back and forth over long distances.

In addition, a good carrier pigeon will not linger in a strange place, and after they are released, they will return to their nest as quickly as possible, so as to send important news to mankind in time.

Of course, the premise of sending the letter to the pigeon, it is also necessary to carry out a certain degree of training, if there is no training, the reliability of the pigeon will be greatly reduced, only the trained pigeon, can be more reliable to send the letter to the designated destination.

In normal times, the role of carrier pigeons does not seem to be so important, but in the event of a devastating disaster, the most primitive way of communication is often the fastest and most effective way.

Because once there is a dangerous situation, the road is likely to be blocked, whether it is a pedestrian or a horse, it is difficult to pass through the blockade line, unable to send important news, and carrier pigeons can fly, and they are relatively small and not so easy to be discovered, so that they can more cleverly avoid the blockade and pass on urgent news.

In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, many times people who use carrier pigeons to deliver the news will prepare a large number of carrier pigeons, and if the situation is extremely critical, they will even release multiple carrier pigeons in a row, so that as long as one carrier pigeon can arrive safely, the message will be passed out, so as to prevent the carrier pigeon from having an accident on the way.

After Li An proposed the sky-high price of the telegraph machine for commercial use, several ministers beside him were all surprised first, and then nodded approvingly, after all, the R&D cost and manufacturing cost of the telegraph machine are too high, and it is normal to raise the price in advance, and this is not compulsive, and the price is not too high.

Chen Xilie's eyes blinked, feeling that something was not suitable, and said: "Li Shilang, it's just that the telegram is divided into ordinary, urgent and special urgent is not enough, but also the number of words!" If a telegram is only three or five words, it can be sent quickly, and if it is tens of thousands of words, it will not take a long time, so how can the price be the same? ”

"Yes, the left is right, the number of words in the telegram must be limited, if the number of words is too much, the cost of time will be too high, and the price will naturally be increased."

"Li Shilang, what Zuo Xiang said is reasonable, and the number of words in the telegram should also be considered!"

Chen Xilie's words were immediately recognized by many ministers, and even Ang Lee recognized what Chen Xilie said.

"Haha, what Zuo Xiang said is very true, it is true that the number of words should also be considered, the more words, the higher the price."

Ang Lee said with a smile.

Charging fees according to the number of words has always been the rule of later generations, so, many times, the person who shoots the telegram will try to simplify the number of words as much as possible, so that you can spend a lot of money, and even, in order to save money, some people send a word is there, two words, three words are very common, and more than ten words of telegrams, but it seems very rare, only when the imperial court sends a telegram, will send a lot of content, in order to prevent the message from not being in place, so that the person who receives the message can not understand.

The reason why it is charged according to the number of words is because the telegraph is sent word by word, and it takes a word to send each word, and the more words are sent, the more time is spent, and because the number of transmitters is small, many people have this demand, so if it is because a person delays too much time, the use of others will be restricted, and the more content of the report, the greater the workload of the dispatcher, the harder it is, and the price should naturally be higher.

In addition, in addition to the difference in the number of words, there is indeed a difference between urgent and ordinary, but the main consideration in later generations is the number of words, and the money for expedited increase is not much, only the cost of the number of words is the big one.

According to the price given by Ang Lee just now, if it is 200 words per word, it seems to be a bit too expensive, and besides, always sending a telegram of one or two words does not allow the person who receives the message to accurately understand the content and meaning of the telegram.

Therefore, Ang Lee thinks that a range of words should be set, for example, the basic price within ten words is the basic price, and then, each additional word will add a lot of extra money, so as to avoid the appearance of too many words of telegrams, and greatly improve the efficiency of telegram use.