There are thousands of streets and restaurants in Zhengyang Mansion, but Jupeng Tower is not famous among them. It was only after Chen Yue came to Jupeng Tower that he discovered that there is a cave inside, with small bridges, flowing water, ponds and flowers. This cave has already come. In this season, a melting spring scene is actually built inside.
The shopkeeper of Qingjiang Bookstore is named Ning.
The shopkeeper of Chongwen Hall is named Shan.
One is tall and the other is short. Behind these two shopkeepers, there are also the shopkeepers of Zhengyang's large and small book halls. After seeing them one after another, the two of them led Chen Yue into a large room.
"Mr. Chen's type printing machine is indeed quite ingenious. The printed words are clean and smooth. On the same page, the number of words on it is more than three times greater."
Shopkeeper Ning looked at Chen Yue and said, "It's just this kind of thing. It takes too much effort. Most of the guys below are ignorant and don't know how to read. It's too troublesome to operate."
For example, in their bookstore, you only need to find a skilled technician to engrave the contents of a piece of paper in a matter of seconds. Instead, you can have people hold lead letters and put them one by one on the copier with tweezers, and then typesetting them. Yes, it’s really too much trouble. The wages they offer don’t support workers’ laborious efforts to pick words.
What's more, many of their staff are illiterate.
"But Mr. Chen also has wax paper printing in Tiangongyuan, which is much simpler than type printing."
Shopkeeper Shan followed up and said: "It's something printed on wax paper. It mainly depends on the handwriting of the writer. It's not like printing with lead type. The words are regular."
Chen Yue nodded. Chen Yue knew all about the advantages and disadvantages of the two printing methods. However, when it comes to making books more exquisite, the standard for printing text still depends on type printing.
"Mr. Chen has made a lot of money by using type printing."
"I heard that the Confucian sages' books all want to be reprinted using type printing."
"The Xiao family, a wealthy family in Zhengyang, also has the intention to replace all the 12,000 volumes of books in their collection with type printing."
The shopkeepers nearby started talking about Chen Yue's future ways of making money.
"Mr. Chen, as the shopkeeper of Donglin Academy, you really make a lot of money."
Shopkeeper Shan said to Chen Yue.
At this time, Chen Yue smiled sadly and said: "You all know that the shopkeeper is often empty-handed. Every day when I open my eyes, dozens of people need me to take care of them. What can I put in my pocket? How many pieces?"
Chen Yue first denied making money, saying that he really didn't make money. He said: "I have already thought about it. If I really want to make money, I still need to expand my business. The only way is to recruit more people and run more operations." Only by using a printing press can you make some profits."
These people praise Chen Yuefu just because they want Chen Yue to take a step back.
Chen Yue is someone who wants to win all the way, how could he just retreat casually?
Hearing Chen Yue cry here that he didn't make any money and wanted to expand his business, the shopkeepers of these bookstores became distressed.
"We invited Shopkeeper Chen here today because we want to separate the scope of business with Shopkeeper Chen."
Shopkeeper Ning simply said directly, "We all know Shopkeeper Chen's ingenuity. We have also bought Shopkeeper Chen's printing press and are willing to give this printing press to Shopkeeper Chen. We only hope that Shopkeeper Chen can print it out." The books have raised the prices, giving those of us some opportunities to make money.”
If Chen Yue used books printed with lead blocks to start a price war with these bookstores and expand his business, these bookstores would be completely unable to bear it.
Only by making the books printed by Chen Yue more expensive can they have room to make money.
In today's world, there are still many people copying books and circulating them. Therefore, there is no need to worry about no one buying the books. The only problem is the price. They want Chen Yue to raise the price and at the same time lower the price themselves. The two will widen the gap and let Chen Yue go. Go to the high-end market, and they take the route of small profits but quick turnover.
Chen Yue thought for a moment and said: "But if I increase the price, I'm afraid I will suffer heavy losses. I also have my Donglin Weekly, which must not increase the price."
Weekly magazines are just cultivating readers and undergoing a wave of consumption upgrades, and the number of subscribers will plummet.
“Donglin Weekly doesn’t need to increase its price…”
Shopkeeper Shan pushed a tray in front of Chen Yue and said, "I would like to ask Mr. Chen to show your kindness when printing other books."
"The printing machines we bought were also voluntarily given to Mr. Chen."
Shopkeeper Ning also said.
Their study hall system cannot run this troublesome thing.
A small win of one thousand taels...
Chen Yue scanned the money, looked at the shopkeepers, and asked, "How much do you think I should increase the price?"
After coming out of Jupeng Tower, there was still the afterglow in the sky. Chen Yue did not go back to Donglin Academy directly. Instead, he went to see the great scholar Song Weiguang and told him that the people from the bookstore today wanted to raise the price of the books. .
"With these one thousand taels, I want to open an academy."
Chen Yue faced Song Weiguang and said: "Most of the guys in Donglin Academy have never studied, and this situation can be seen in the Zhengyang calendar. Therefore, I want to set up a Donglin Academy to recruit students who want to study. I charge low tuition fees for my children, keep the academy running, and my husband’s salary is mostly paid for by the premium on my books.”
The establishment of Donglin Academy was envisioned after Chen Yue established the Donglin Party.
Now it can just be implemented.
As for free admission, Chen Yue had probably estimated that he couldn't support it. A small fee would be a symbolic threshold, and he could reject some people who had no learning conditions at all.
"It's a good thing that you have such a big heart."
Song Weiguang nodded and said: "You can establish Donglin Academy as long as you want. I will help you sort out the upper and lower issues."
Confucianism and Taoism were originally meant to educate people. Chen Yue established Donglin Academy, which also promoted Confucianism.
"The printing press you made is also very good, but it is troublesome to operate. Unfortunately, it was stipulated many years ago that extraordinary power cannot affect ordinary people too much. Otherwise, if the printing machine is refined into a cultural treasure, the situation will be very different."
Song Weiguang sighed and said, "But recently the Confucianists have seen books printed with typefaces and are preparing to ask you to reprint the saint's scriptures. You can also pay attention to it."
When Chen Yue heard this, he asked, "I've heard rumors about this, but I've never seen anyone from Confucianism come to your door."
With the advent of type printing, many books will be reprinted and included. This is an established fact, but it has never been implemented.
"It's mainly about the annotations in the saints' scriptures. Which one is the main one? Which one is the auxiliary one? We want to discuss internally to come up with a model."
Song Weiguang said: "Although it is inevitable to print them together in the end, the outline must be clearly defined after all."
It's the same thing as sword sect and air sect, right?
Chen Yue did not go into depth on this topic and just said: "As for Donglin Academy, I want to hire Ma Quan and let him teach in Donglin Academy."
Ma Quan is also an old man in the Donglin Party.
(End of chapter)
