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"It seems that the scale of Shichang Bookstore is indeed not small! Wang shopkeeper, I don't know whether the printing plate in the workshop now uses more letterpress or more engraving. ”

Wang Guangxing replied: "Back to the world, both are used in the workshop. Generally, if it is a printing rush or some small drafts, it is a movable type version; If you need to print books of high quality and in a hurry, you should use engraving. ”

"Which type of printing is better?" Geng Jingzhong continued to ask.

"This is not very good, if it is a small amount of printing, it is better to engraving, it takes a long time, and it is also the most exquisite. If it is a large-scale print, movable type is still used. And this movable type printing depends on what kind of font is used. There are four kinds of copper, iron, lead and wood, because the copper mold is too expensive, can not afford to use, and the handwriting printed by the iron mold and the lead mold is relatively blurred, so the Shichang bookstore is basically used in the wooden type, not stained with ink, both cheap and easy to use. ”

"I see!" Geng Jingzhong nodded, movable type printing had already been invented, and it was also being used on a large scale.

Compared with the two printing techniques, of course, movable type printing is more efficient, and the final cost is much lower. However, movable type printing requires a large number of types to be made in advance, so the initial cost is much higher than that of engraving printing, and the technical difficulty is much greater. There have only been a few large-scale movable type printed books in Chinese history, and they were all officially organized. Folk movable type printing has always stayed in the small-scale, simple and low-level printing application. For example, if the Wang family's Shichang Bookstore had not done business with several merchants, it would not have used movable type to print books very often.

When it comes to the development of the printing industry, of course, it is still the first to recommend the Jiangsu and Hangzhou regions in the south of the Yangtze River. In the classic TV series "The Legend of Deer and Ding" that I watched in my previous life, there was a large-scale printing of the book "Ming Book Compilation" by Huzhou Zhuangjia, which reached tens of thousands of copies. The real event happened a few years ago, but Geng Jingzhong has not yet come to this world. The Ming history case was widely implicated, among which the Huzhou dealer was indeed the initiator, not made up by Jin Dada. It can be seen that the printing industry in Jiangnan is indeed thriving!

In this era, printing mainly used water-soluble inks with smoke ink as pigments. This kind of ink can easily be turned into ink beads on movable metal type, but it can be very well expressed on wooden engravings. Even so, movable type printing cannot be transferred by simple embossing like block printing. The rubbing process is very slow, in order to ensure that it can be effectively printed, it is necessary to use the paper with strong water absorption, and the result is that there will be ink on the back of the paper, which cannot be printed on both sides, and the cost of printing is increased invisibly. Even the use of wooden movable type also has its weaknesses, when printing too much, the character of the character mold will absorb the moisture in the smoke ink, and begin to swell and become blurred. But overall, wooden type is still very practical.

"So like the books on the shelves next to them are all printed with engravings?" Geng Jingzhong pointed to a row of bookshelves on the right, which were filled with volumes of books.

"Yes, Shizi, these are all high-quality products, and the number of prints is generally very small."

"What does that mass-printed look like, and how does the handwriting compare to what you want in this book?" Geng Jingzhong continued to ask.

"Hui Shizi, it's almost the same, now the bookstalls on the street sell movable type printing, and it's okay!" Wang Guangxing said truthfully.

"Hey, by the way, you just said that the wooden mold doesn't stick to ink? Isn't this printing ink? Is it ink? Geng Jingzhong suddenly thought of something, he remembered that ink was far inferior to ink, and the printing of later generations was all ink printing!

"Ink? Haven't heard of it! Now we use ink, so most of the movable type printing is only printed on one side, if you want to print double-sided, you have to thicken the paper! ”

"Ink, ink!" Geng Jingzhong chattered twice, it seems that this thing has not been invented in China, and I don't know whether this thing was invented by Westerners or the East. If it is a Western invention, send someone to the starting point town to ask and see if anyone can do it!

About ink, it is also not mentioned in later history books. In fact, two hundred years ago, that is, in the middle of the fifteenth century, movable type printing was introduced to Europe, and less than 50 years later, the Germans invented Western movable type printing with lead, antimony, tin alloy typemolds and inks as raw materials, so that Europe surpassed China in printing technology in one fell swoop. At that time, it was the early Renaissance in Europe, and the emergence of this printing technology greatly reduced the cost of book printing, but the speed increased a lot, thus providing great convenience for the dissemination of scientific and cultural knowledge. Many scholars in later generations believed that Europe could achieve rapid development in the 16th and 17th centuries, shorten the gap with China, and even surpass China in the 18th and 19th centuries. The emergence of this printing press is also one of the important reasons.

In fact, after so many years of development, China's printing technology has already been very mature. Now you only need to get the right font and ink, and the printing efficiency and effect should not be bad there.

The specific use of that kind of word mold will be said when the time comes, let the following people carefully study it, now the important thing is to print the newspaper quickly, paper handwriting is generally OK, not very forced, these can be slowly improved in the future!

"So, shopkeeper king! I'm ready to buy your Shichang Bookstore, and I need you to keep doing things for me! Wang Guangxing was not too surprised when he heard Geng Jingzhong's words, Geng Jingzhong said so much before, he understood a little. He was just about to speak, but Geng Jingzhong raised his hand to stop him. "You listen to my conditions first."

Geng Jingzhong picked up the tea bowl, stood up and walked two steps. "Your bookstore is worth about 20,000 silver dollars, and you can make a profit of 800 dollars a month. Then I'll give you 20,000 silver dollars, and then a thousand dollars a month. If you want to find another way, I will give you 40,000 silver dollars at a time, I don't know what you think? ”

Wang Guangxing was not ready to fight back, and he was even more ecstatic after hearing the conditions given by Geng Jingzhong. He took the initiative to ignore the latter one, he could get a large sum of silver, and at the same time he had more salary for doing things for the prince, so the fool didn't agree! "The villain is willing to serve the son, and the sword mountain and the sea of fire are not unremitting!"

"Hey, what do I want you to do with the sword, you are also a scholar, just help me take care of the bookstore. Let's put it this way, I'm going to start a newspaper, that is, to publish newspapers like the imperial court's mansion, but no one is good at it, so I found you, after all, you do this all year round! ”

"Shizi, Di Bao is specially managed by the General Administration Department of the Imperial Court. You" After Wang Guangxing heard this, he immediately entered the role and considered Geng Jingzhong.

"Oh, the newspaper I'm going to publish is not for the purpose of disseminating the content of the government and political information like the Di newspaper, but to publish other content! However, if something serious happens, it can also be published on it. ”

Wang Guangxing only knew that it was different from Di Bao, but he still didn't understand what kind of newspaper Geng Jingzhong wanted! Seeing his puzzled look, Geng Jingzhong began to explain to him carefully: "The newspaper I want, just like the one you just took is the same size, it is best to print on both sides, and choose a better paper to print." Well, the content is wide-ranging. Education, military, academics, business, agriculture, and more! For example, the content of the last public trial of pirates, the process of the navy's crackdown on pirates, the current business and trade of Houyu Port, the recruitment inspiration of the shop, the promotion of the products of various merchants, and the excellent articles of celebrities and students can all be published in this newspaper. ”

"The main purpose of my founding of this newspaper is to serve as my voice to the public, and when I want to do something, I can inform the people in advance in the newspaper so that they can actively cooperate. The good and the bad can be known to the people. In short, there are many wonderful uses for this newspaper, and you will know it later! In two days, I will give you a sample of the newspaper, listing what the newspaper can publish and the direction of future development, and you will go to take care of the bookstore and prepare it for printing. I'll make up this first issue for you, and it's up to you to see what you can do in the future! ”

"Hey, rest assured, my subordinates will do their best!" Wang Guangxing heard so much, in fact, he already understood a rough idea in his heart. When he heard the words of the promotion of the products of various merchants, he realized that this newspaper could definitely make a lot of money. This newspaper was founded by Shizi, and it is definitely going to be sold all over Fujian. If the products of the previous merchant are listed, then the products of this one will immediately start the banner, and the sales will inevitably increase significantly. As a result, other businesses have followed suit, so the bookstore is not a source of money!

The son of the world is really whimsical, he can be ordinary people can't, amazing! It's no wonder that the big families of Fujian are gathered around the prince, and their feelings follow the prince so quickly!