Tao Wangling arched his hand and said: "Teacher, I know that you pity the work of your disciples, and you can't bear to let us work hard, and students can take out twenty taels a month to subsidize their classmates who compile academic journals." Pen %Fun %Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Lin Yanchao looked at Tao Wangling, he knew that the Tao family was a famous family, and the family was a long-lived eunuch, so the amount of silver was really just something outside Tao Wangling's body.

For such a generation of hairpins, even if he doesn't take the exam, he is enough to live better than most of the Jinshi.

Lin Yanchao is not a pedantic person, if Tao Wangling wants to give him two silver taels, he will not quit.

But Lin Yanchao thought a little long-term: "Wangling, you have understood what I mean wrong." If you rely on your disciples to subsidize silver taels or manually compile the academic journal, then this matter is not a long-term solution. The things of the world are not profitable, and they are not profitable. If you want to be long-term, you must have a good word. ”

Xu Huobo said: "Teacher, since ancient times, it is difficult to benefit others and benefit yourself!" ”

Lin Yanchao said to the two disciples, "Why can't you benefit others and yourself? Engraving books, revitalizing education lies in benefiting others, earning remuneration is for self-interest, and benefiting others and self-interest. If it is promoted to the world, not only can it be edified, but it also does not know how many people have an additional way to make food. Culture and education are also a matter of merit. ”

Listening to Lin Yanchao's words, the two disciples couldn't help but be convinced.

Xu Huobo exclaimed: "The teacher is teaching me by word and deed, and he teaches me what the way of doing things is in practice. ”

Lin Yanchao smiled, and then paced and thought, before the improvement of printing, it was indeed a little difficult to run a newspaper in this era before papermaking, mainly because the cost could not come.

5,000 words of books and periodicals, two pieces of silver, how much is that? The imperial court paid officials one tael a month, that is, an ordinary person had to work for six days to read Lin Yanchao's journal, which was still the cost price.

Lin Yanchao came from the era of the big explosion of knowledge in later generations, and he knew how expensive it was to read books in this era.

Now you can read a million-word novel on the Internet for only twenty or thirty yuan, and the difficulty of ancient and modern times can be imagined. If you don't think of ways to reduce costs, it's really not easy to implement school magazines and newspapers.

Lin Yanchao said: "After class tomorrow afternoon, you will follow me to the bookstore for a walk!" ”

It's really shallow on paper, and I never know that I have to do it.

Lin Yanchao, Xu Huobo, Tao Wangling and several other disciples went to the bookstore to take a look, and finally understood why the cost was so high. The lettering bookstore that the disciples found for Lin Yanchao was quite noble, and it turned out to be the carving workshop of Guozi Supervisor.

The Si Li Jian Jing Factory and the Guozi Jian Carving Workshop were the largest carving workshops in the country at that time.

The supervision and carving workshop uses the printing method of engraving copper movable type, which of course cannot be costed. Lin Yanchao remembered that during the Qing Dynasty, someone in Fujian asked someone to engrave copper movable type, and a total of more than 400,000 copper movable characters were cast, and 200,000 taels of silver were used.

Lin Yanchao also knew that the disciples had good intentions, and they wanted the "Xuegongtang Miscellaneous Treatises" to be exquisitely produced, so the copper characters printed by the movable copper type were exquisite and elegant, and they were naturally the most popular among readers.

Therefore, the two cents of each word of ICBC given by the supervisor and the carving workshop are definitely the price of conscience, so that Lin Yanchao can't suppress the price if he wants to find someone.

Everyone went out of the gate of the country.

Looking at the disciples as a matter of course, Lin Yanchao shook his head, he really didn't know how expensive firewood and rice were.

Qu Hengjiang said to Lin Yanchao: "The largest book engraving workshop in the capital, except for Guozijian, is the master of ceremonies. If Mr. is not satisfied with the carving workshop, we can find the factory to give it a try. ”

Lin Yanchao had also heard of the Si Li Jian Economic Factory, which was the largest publishing organization in the world, with thousands of craftsmen such as engravers, printers, distributors, and bookbinders. Moreover, the engraving and paper and ink of the master of ceremonies and the factory are very good, in addition to being used by Ouchi, you can also borrow private work from the people.

All the disciples knew that Lin Yanchao disliked the copper movable type was too expensive, so he retreated to find the bookstore of the celebrant to print "Xuegongtang Miscellaneous", which was also okay.

Lin Yanchao knew that he went to the ceremonial supervision factory to engrave books, and with his relationship with Feng Bao and Gao Huai, these people would definitely give themselves a preferential price. But this is still a move to sell favors, and it is not a profitable road at all.

Lin Yanchao saw that the disciples didn't understand what they meant at all and said: "It's good to supervise the business factory, but it's still expensive, let me ask you if there are any other cheaper carving workshops?" ”

Everyone looked at each other.

Qu Hengjiang said: "Sir, there are only private carving workshops of the people, or government-run craftsmen's workshops." ”

Lin Yanchao nodded and said, "It's all right, be sure to put benefits first." ”

Although I don't know why Lin Yanchao is worried about money, the teacher has to shop around, and the disciples can only help find a way.

A few days later, they finally found a carving workshop on the outskirts of Beijing.

Lin Yanchao sat in a carriage and came to this workshop in person. At this moment, the workshop is a standard craftsman carving workshop.

Lin Yanchao entered the carving workshop, where an old man with gray hair and a middle-aged man were using a knife to engrave words on the carved plate.

There are also two young men, one is tracing with a pen on the carved plate, the other is holding a roller brush to roll the engraved engraving plate, and the other few female workers are making and binding.

The carving workshop is filled with the smell of ink and sawdust.

Lin Yanchao glanced at it, and when he saw the old man and the middle-aged man who were carving, he couldn't help but say, I'm not mistaken, it's really carved plate printing.

Is engraving printing cheaper than movable type printing?

Seeing Lin Yanchao standing at the door, a young man saw it and said, "Guest officer, are you here to print books?" ”

"Presumptuous, old man Sun, open your dog's eyes wide, this is the champion of today's department, and he doesn't kneel down to greet him." The craftsman shouted loudly.

Hearing that it was the champion Gong, the craftsmen in the carving workshop all put down what they were doing and knelt in a row in front of Lin Yanchao.

The old man trembled and said: "The villain Sun Yougong, is a craftsman in the carving workshop, I thought that the champion would arrive a few days late, but I didn't expect it to come today, the villain failed to meet from afar, and asked the champion to forgive the crime." ”

Lin Yanchao said with a smile: "It's okay for the old man, I'll take a look first." ”

Lin Yanchao had heard before he came that this carving workshop belonged to a craftsman.

The household registration of the Ming Dynasty was divided into three classes, which were artisan households, military households, and civilian households. Artisan households, like military households, are hereditary, and their ancestors and grandchildren must be craftsmen, and they cannot engage in other industries.

Sun Yougong's family was originally from Haining, Zhejiang, and when he became an ancestor, he went from Haining to Beijing as a resident craftsman.

As a resident craftsman, in addition to serving the imperial court for ten days a month. The rest of the day you can be self-employed. As for the Sun family's self-run workshop, they usually print popular novels for bookstores, and then price them according to the pages. They used engraving books, each page was about 500 words, and each page charged five coins of silver.

In this way, the "Xuegongtang Miscellaneous Treatises" only needs five taels of money to engrave a book. Isn't it said that movable type printing is more cost-effective than engraving printing? In the end, engraving printing is so much cheaper than movable type printing.

Am I going back in time to the wrong dynasty? I guess I came to a fake Ming Dynasty.

Lin Yanchao almost looked up to the sky and sighed.

Lin Yanchao said to Sun Yougong: "Get up, I'll take a look at your engraving and printing paper." ”

Lin Yanchao said politely, but how dare several craftsmen get up easily.

As the so-called Shinong industry and commerce, the social status of craftsmen is extremely low, not to mention that Lin Yanchao, as the champion of today, is an ordinary scholar, and they dare not be rude.

The craftsman Lijia said on the side: "Champion Gong, let them kneel and talk." ”

Lin Yanchao didn't deliberately insist, but asked, "Sun Yougong, how many men do you have?" ”

Sun Yougong knelt down and said: "There are three sons, the eldest son is serving in the Economic Bureau, the second son helps me carve books at home, the third is still studying in Mengxue, and the others are helpers I hired to help." ”

After Sun Yougong finished speaking, the craftsman Lijia was over there and laughed: "Old man Sun, do you still want to make a living?" That's the toad wants to eat swan meat, it's better to do things for the nobles honestly, and throw the silver into the water for nothing. ”

The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty could be examined, and although the number of Jinshi in the middle of the examination was small, it was not none. It's just that the status is limited to the craftsmen who have joined the army themselves, such as those craftsmen who have been forced into craftsmen by their families because of sin, they are not qualified.

Sun Yougong listened to the ridicule of the general a, and said sneeringly: "We have carved a book for a lifetime, but we can't read one or two words in ten words in the book. ”

Lin Yanchao didn't expect Sun Yougong to be illiterate.

So Lin Yanchao asked Sun Yougong about engraving printing, and compared movable type printing with engraving printing, and he finally understood why engraving printing was still popular in the Ming Dynasty.

It turned out that movable type printing in this era was mainly used for private engraving, although the handwriting was clear and the dots were clear, but the cost was too high.

And the folk such as the famous Jianyang bookshops, many still use engraving printing.

You must know that the end of the Ming Dynasty was the era of the rise of popular novels, such as the novels you see today, such as a certain plum and a certain group, which are all engraved word by word by engraving printing.

Why is that? Because the reading group of popular novels is all in the market and for the general public, so it is for the purpose of profit, so it must be cheap and affordable, so engraving printing is used. Of course, engraving printing has always been criticized by the scholar class as 'the evil use of printing paper', and there are many typos, so it can only be for the general public.

However, during the Jiajinglong period, engraving printing was also innovated.

In the Jiajing period, the first thing was to invent the craftsman character, the so-called craftsman character is today's Song style.

The characteristics of Song characters are horizontal and vertical, and the purpose is to facilitate the carving of craftsmen. Before the Song characters came out, the carvers could only carve more than 200 characters a day, but after that, the efficiency was greatly improved.

In addition to being easy to carve, Songti characters also have a feature that they are easy to learn and easy to use. In the past, carvers had to be able to write good calligraphy in order to engrave plates, so the carved words were beautiful! Otherwise, what will it look like crookedly?

But the Song style is different, with a square pen to engrave the book, even if you are illiterate, you will always be asked to copy.

At that time, as soon as the Song character came out, some people sarcastically ridiculed that this Song character was neither Yan or European, what is this called? This craftsman carved the Song characters, almost the same, as if from the same person's hand.

For conservative scholars, it is naturally unaccustomed to the Songti characters that are born for the sake of printing, and the Song characters without arcs are naturally unaccustomed, which undoubtedly destroys the beauty of calligraphy, and is regarded as bad, dull, or even unwritten.

Hearing what Sun Degong said here, Lin Yanchao showed a sneering look.

History will prove that Song Tizi lives better than anyone else.

The reason for the opposition of these scholars is that they 'stick to the old rules' and 'seek the Tao without seeking profit', Lin Yanchao does not advocate these, and the work is the pursuit of efficacy.

In addition to the Song characters, in order to pursue profits, the folk carving workshop also carried out streamlined operations for engraving printing. From the past carving by one person, to the division of labor, such as the printer and the printer, the efficiency has been improved. And the most criticized 'bad paper' has also improved slightly.

Sun Yougong took out the freshly printed book, and Lin Yanchao looked at the printing effect, but fortunately it was within his tolerance.

In this way, the price of the engraved book of "Xuegongtang Miscellaneous Treatises" is five taels, and the cost of ink, paper, repair, and printing is six taels. The price is only one-tenth of that of copper movable type, and if it is close to the wood production area, the skilled Jianyang Bookstore can further reduce the cost.

Even so, the cost price of "Xuegongtang Miscellaneous" has been reduced to two cents of silver.

"You say two cents for five thousand words?" Lin Yanchao asked again with confirmation.

"Yes." Sun Yougong thought that Lin Yanchao wanted to lower the price, and said in a low voice with a bitter face.

The craftsman Li Jia scolded: "Old man Sun, hello is not a thing, the champion prince gave you a book, that is the matter of your ancestors accumulating virtue, and you are still so greedy, believe it or not, I let your family send you to Liaodong to serve hard labor." ”

Sun Yougong hurriedly said: "Champion Gong, the villain is wrong, the villain is worthless, don't throw it away, just ask the champion to give us some food and drink, so that it is okay to have eight cents or six cents." ”

Sun Yougong said distressedly, and the craftsmen below lowered their heads, not to mention Sun Yougong, they couldn't eat enough.

Craftsman Li Jia calculated that this was the limit, and immediately decided for Sun Yougong: "That's okay, just one and a half cents." ”

Lin Yanchao gave Chen Jichuan a look, and Chen Jichuan said to the craftsman Li Jia: "Chief A, I have other things to ask." ”

After the craftsman's general armor is branched out.

Lin Yanchao looked at the disciple behind him and asked, "What do you think?" ”

Lin Yanchao thought about it for a long time, but the result of two cents of silver did not make the disciples overjoyed at all. In the hearts of Xu Huobo's disciples, it was so noble to cough up "Xuegongtang Miscellaneous Treatises", but now when I got it, at first glance, I thought it was a Yan (Xiehe) love novel from Jianyang on the bookshelf.

Only Qu Hengjiang said: "If we have one and a half cents, we can sell it for three cents of silver, not only can we make a profit, but even the peddlers can afford it." ”

Lin Yanchao looked at Sun Yougong, who was sitting dry, and said, "Sun Yougong, I'll give you a condition?" ”

Sun Yougong said disgracefully: "Champion Gong, if the price is lowered again, our family will not be able to survive." ”

Lin Yanchao shook his head and said: "Although I hope that the cost of publishing books is low, I will not squeeze you with my conscience, I can give you two and a half cents per copy, can you only give me one person to engrave books in the future?" ”

Hearing Lin Yanchao say this, Sun Yougong showed a look of surprise on his face.