After hearing what Shen Mei said, Song Huan was even more surprised than Shen Mei!
"What?"
“Aren’t movable type printing plates used to print books now?”
Shen Mei immediately looked at Song Huan like he was looking at a fool.
"Your Highness... I have never heard of the movable type printing plate you are talking about!"
"Don't tell me that I haven't heard of it before. Looking at the whole country, I'm afraid I won't be able to find anyone who has heard of this word!"
"Now we, Daliang, use woodblock printing!"
Woodblock printing?
Such ancient technology!
This technique requires first carving text and patterns onto a wooden block, then applying ink to the surface of the wood block, and then transferring the text and patterns onto rice paper.
Woodblock printing is time-consuming, labor-intensive, of varying quality, and cannot be modified at all.
At the same time, this printing technology also has certain limitations on the number of printing editions.
All in all, one sentence: very inconvenient!
If there were movable type printing plates, then my request for a mere five hundred poetry collections would be nothing at all.
……etc!
There is no movable type printing yet!
That means...
You can be the first person to pioneer movable type printing!
Thinking of this, Song Huan felt ecstatic in his heart!
"Miss Shen, good thing, good thing!"
"Business opportunity is here!"
"Business opportunity?" Shen Mei tilted her head, confused, "Your Highness, what business opportunity?"
"Didn't you just want to print a book?"
"Why do you suddenly see business opportunities again?"
Song Huan smiled mysteriously: "It's because I want to print books that I see this glimmer of hope!"
"I would like to ask you first, in your opinion, how long does it take to print a book?"
"How much silver?"
"Create something from scratch and print it into a book?" Shen Mei tilted his head and thought, and after calculating for a long time, he counted on his fingers and said: "The first step? Make a plate out of wood first."
"Then we have to apply paint and transfer..."
"If you want to print it into a book, it will take at least twelve or three days."
"As for the money...it depends on the clarity requirements of the book."
"If you want the printed books to be clear without ink loss, you must use the finest pear wood, ginkgo wood, and jujube wood."
"Even if you use not-so-precious basswood, making a template for a book is still a big expense."
"Add paint, rice paper, binding, etc..."
"At least calculated, each book must have a budget of ten taels of silver!"
Song Huan was speechless repeatedly: "For ordinary people, these ten taels of silver are no longer a small amount."
"And this is just the cost price!"
"If each book earns a small amount of money, how many people can afford to buy a book in this market?"
After listening to Song Huan's analysis, Shen Mei couldn't help but slap her head: "Your Highness, I understand!"
"No wonder books nowadays are so expensive. It can be said that only children from wealthy families can afford to read books."
"It turns out that the root cause is that the price of this book is too high today!"
Song Huan nodded in agreement: "This kind of woodcut printing is not only expensive, but the printed books cannot be preserved for a long time."
“Aside from beautifully printed letterheads and illustrations, this method has no other advantages at all!”
Shenmei Bingxue is smart. After listening to Song Huan say so much, she probably understands what Song Huan wants to express.
"Your Highness, I understand."
"Are you planning to introduce a new printing method to replace the woodblock printing method that is widely circulated today?"
Song Huan clapped his hands and praised with a smile: "Very good!"
"Miss Shen does have a keen sense of business. As soon as I said these few words, Miss Shen already understood my intention."
"That's right!"
"Since the current method is not easy to use, let's find a new method that is more effective."
"The cost of printing books has been reduced and the efficiency has been improved, so people are naturally willing to buy books from us."
"If this continues, sooner or later all other colleagues will be killed!"
Although Shen Mei doesn't understand, isn't it just that he wants to print a few books? What's the point of beating others to death?
But seeing Song Huan's expression of excitement as he spoke, Shen Mei unconsciously became very curious.
"It seems that Your Highness has already thought of a better way?"
"Of course!" Song Huan smiled mysteriously, "Although I didn't come up with this method myself, looking at the entire Daliang, no one has used it yet."
"If I borrow it for the time being, it shouldn't be considered plagiarism!"
Seeing that Song Huan's words were so mysterious, Shen Mei could no longer hold back her overflowing curiosity.
"Your Highness, please tell me quickly!"
"What exactly is the solution?"
Seeing that Shen Mei, who had always been steady, was also aroused by him, Song Huan stopped showing off and slowly spit out five words from his mouth.
"Typography!"
Hearing these five words again, Shen Mei was obviously less puzzled than before and more curious.
"Your Highness, what exactly is this movable type printing technology?"
Song Huan cleared his throat and explained: "Since it is movable type, it must not be like woodcut printing, where all the contents to be printed are made on one board."
"Instead, metal templates are used to create all the different characters!"
"Don't be shocked when you hear all these words."
"Although the initial investment in movable type printing will be huge, in the later stage, you only need to select the words to be printed from these templates and arrange them in order."
"Compared with the woodcut method that requires reprinting the template every time, this movable type printing method can be regarded as once and for all!"
After listening to Song Huan's explanation, Shen Mei's eyes shone brightly, and his expression became extremely excited.
"Your Highness! This is a good idea!"
"As you said, although this method requires a lot of effort and money in the early stage, every subsequent printing will become extremely easy!"
"If I look for the method you described and have the template, if I want to print 500 books, it will definitely take five days!"
Shen Mei became more and more excited as she talked, and by the end, she could no longer hold back the throbbing in her heart.
"Your Highness, I am willing to spend fifty thousand taels of silver to invest in this living printing!"
I didn't expect Shen Mei to be so generous and generous, just do it!
Song Huan was naturally unambiguous and immediately agreed: "Okay!"
"Miss Shen is very straightforward, and I am by no means a hesitant or secretive person."
"I am willing to tell you everything about the specific craftsmanship of movable type printing!"
"Besides, I don't intend to collect any money from Miss Shen."
"I have only one simplest request──"
"If Miss Shen's printing shop opens, you must help me print books at any time!"
