Jia Cong helped Lin Ruhai draft a few letters in the inner study, because he wrote in the pavilion style and was still eye-catching, he couldn't touch the family wealth, and he didn't want to plot other people's family property, and he worked with the staff Guan Chaosheng, Jia Cong went up to the Buddha Confucian Laozhuang, down to the customs and customs, they could talk, and the two had a common language when they worked together. He went back to his room and finished writing forty or fifty pieces of bamboo paper, and Sun Fu ran in with a book in his hand.

"Where did the book come from?" Jia Cong took it one by one and looked at it.

"Guan Xianggong gave a copy of the Song book "Historical Records" and the Ming book "Taizu Records", saying that it was allowed to be engraved and privately engraved, and it was to be returned. In addition, Miss Caiwei sent someone to say that in order to express her gratitude, she would send a copy of "Wanbao Quanshu" and "Romance of the Gods", and she didn't have to return it, and then Cong Ye would exchange the manuscript of "Strange Tales from Mountains and Seas" with her. Sun Fu said: "Master, see if it's worth it?" ”

"It's worth it, it's worth it." As the behind-the-scenes manipulator of Shanhai Books, Jia Cong knows that the engraved copies of the Song and Ming books are worth two or three hundred taels of silver, and the ancients are more reverent than the present.

Take the price of books in the Wanli period and the seventeenth century, the most expensive is the engraved book of the previous dynasty of this dynasty, often hundreds of taels, the more expensive books at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the comprehensive book "Wanbao Quanshu" and "The Romance of the Gods" are all two or two, and the others float between two coins of silver and eight coins of silver.

"Sun Fu, you go to the Yangzhou branch and instruct the craftsmen to print and engrave it immediately." Jia Cong flipped through it, and it was roughly estimated that it was genuine, even if it was not expensive to print, it would be profitable in the end, and attached another copy of "The Painting Skin of Mountains and Seas", and said: "This volume will also be sold in Yangzhou first." ”

Sun Fu went, Long Aotian drew water from the garden stream, Jia Cong washed, took off his robe, exercised and then lay down, without Qingwen's twitter, Xiaohong's can speak, a little unaccustomed, Jia Cong despised himself and said: "Corruption, really corruption, you can't lose yourself in comfort......"

The future and influence of the bookstore are more far-reaching, since the Ming Dynasty, there are about three kinds of ancient engravings, official engraving, private engraving, and workshop engraving.

The official engraving is the school education books engraved by the Ministry of Rites and the Celebrant Superintendent, the imperial decrees of the emperor's court, the popularization of the law, etc., which has no impact on Jia Cong, but it has caused the development of the publishing industry and the engraving industry. Cai Lun improved papermaking technology, and the cheap cost of papermaking and printing provided technical conditions for the cultural prosperity of the late Ming Dynasty and Dashun.

Private engraving lies in the gentry and wealthy merchant families, not for the purpose of profit, generally think that the elegant communication, or to achieve the Confucian standard purpose of "Liyan", the gentry family, most of them have their own private carving workshop.

The two most famous places for Chinese publishing workshops are Huizhou in Anhui and Jianyang in Fujian, Huizhou Huang's workshop from the beginning of the Ming Dynasty and has survived until the twentieth century, Jianyang Yu's branch opened to Jinling Suzhou, and later Jianyang declined and was replaced by Jiangnan, which had a far-reaching impact on society, which buried Jia Cong's political purpose in the future.

Best-selling books such as travel guides, flower arrangements, comprehensive books, and current texts are all-encompassing, and his audience is concentrated in readers, wealthy businessmen, and women from bureaucratic families. There is no doubt that the first step for upper-class and middle-class women in ancient times to really go out of the house was in the mutual exchange of poems and books.

Although, in terms of the general illiteracy in ancient times, the literate population was less than 10 percent of the total population, and the bearer of the purchasing power of books was limited to the middle and upper classes, a middle-class laborer in Huzhou would not spend nearly half of his annual salary to buy a copy of "The Romance of the Gods". However, the widespread cultivation of cotton and mulberry trees in Jiangnan, Shandong, Henan, and Zhili, and the large import of silver by the Western bandits, the commodity economy in Jiangnan has long been developed, which made it possible for Jia Cong to enter the Jiangnan market and start a bookseller.

……

The autumn breeze blows, wrinkling a touch of clear water in the canal, the scene of people coming and going in Jiangdu Port is cleared by the Yamen soldiers, on the masonry avenue, Guan Chaosheng walked first, dozens of slender men tied the rope on the shore, Jia Cong stepped on the deck, Guan Chaosheng turned back and said: "Zili, I'm afraid you haven't seen the salt bag, this one has 3,000 stones, more than 30,000 catties." ”

Jia Cong entered the cabin, stretched his neck and saw that the sacks on the boat were piled up in rows, and the accompanying salt transport envoy Yamen Yun said to Ni Rulun: "It's not worth much, one or two silver, you can buy three hundred and twenty catties of salt." ”

Jia Cong said: "It's almost six pounds a catty, ten pounds and sixty pounds, and after calculation, more than 30,000 catties is only a few hundred taels, where can I get hundreds of thousands of dollars?" ”

Ni Rulun smiled: "Xiao Xianggong is really ignorant of affairs, this is only the first order to come, and the boats behind can only fill the Grand Canal, and this is only Huainan, counting Huaibei, the number of accounting can be written to your hand." ”

Guan Chaosheng knew that Jia Cong was pretending to be stupid and stunned, and entered the secret cabin, Jia Cong smiled and stepped back to browse, looking at the salt merchant directors, salt ambassadors and library ambassadors of the Yamen, Ni Rulun personally looked at it, Guan Chaosheng coughed dryly and said: "Ni Yuntong, the salt patrol is the governor's salt affairs, although Lord Lin is sick, this account has to be shown to me." ”

"So that the rules of so many years will not be messed up." Ni Rulun handed him the account book: "Salt is hereditary to merchants, so you don't need to read those, right?" ”

Guan Chaosheng said coldly: "What you have to see, pass the customs and verify, how can there be no salt citation, three thousand stones, let alone thirty salt citations, the official supervision and business luck, which household and which person, all be remembered, otherwise how can I explain to Lord Lin?" And how to tell whether it is private salt or official salt? ”

Jia Cong saw Ni Rulun waving to the director of the salt farm unhappily, and those people handed over the salt leads, Guan Chaosheng reconciled the accounts, and said: "Ni Yuntong, these salt leads have already been opened, this is private salt, and the rest will be like this, I can't afford it." ”

"The official salt is the big head, the private salt is miscellaneous, the minister is worthy of the money and grain master's background, it is good to do it according to the old way, or Lord Lin is not satisfied, stay a line as a man, and see each other in the future." Ni Rulun raised his tone consultatively, "According to your calculations, the private salt of Lianghuai is a few trillion trillion trillion stones." ”

Jia Cong looked at those salt field directors and salt transport envoys Yamen ambassadors, with cold faces, clearly dissatisfied with Guan Chaosheng, Director Feng said: "My lord is the hometown friendship of the governor and the lord, if you want to talk about it, the former patrol and guard the road under the division of the department, and the participation in politics and council under the division are not unrelated to the business lord of this state, it is not the first time that the minister has remembered this, why is he not skilled?" ”

Ni Rulun's eyes flashed with a ghostly light, Guan Chaosheng smiled, put down the brush, and put the accounts into his sleeve, "I know, this is my resignation." Jia Xiaoxianggong and I want to inspect the salt farm, can it be convenient? ”

Director Feng's face looked better, opened his mouth, and said, "That's okay, there is a branch over there in Ganquan, and when these are all reviewed, I will take you over." ”

Under their different gazes, the two finally walked out of the deck and went ashore, Guan Chaosheng said, "Did you see it?" The official supervision of the commercial movement is actually the collusion between the government and the business. ”

Jia Cong said: "The forces are intertwined, even if Lin Yushi wants to do it, he can't." ”

As soon as the official ship passed, the two saw another boat coming to anchor, and out of a military general with a helmet and armor, a lion supplement, Jia Cong frowned and thought about it, and guessed: "It seems to be the deputy chief soldier of Zhenjiang, what is he doing here?" ”

Guan Chaosheng was also puzzled and shook his head.