After explaining the situation to everyone, the rest is their own business.
The effect this time was good. Under Guo Kang's explanation, the priests were very interested in this theory and were willing to read more books. Guo Kang also promised that he would persuade the family to donate more books to them in the future to make everyone happier.
At that time, after the papermaking and printing technology was introduced here, it immediately triggered a craze in the area. Even after decades, Guo Kang can still feel this passion and the power behind books.
Before the popularity of "Chinese paper", books were very expensive, especially in remote areas. It was even more exaggerated - in England during the High Middle Ages, a book could be sold for one pound. According to the price at that time, it could weigh about 600 kilograms. of wheat, or 30 good suckling pigs. Even if you replace it with ordinary spices, you can get ten pounds. You can imagine how precious and scarce knowledge is.
However, papermaking technology had begun to spread to other areas long ago. Around the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Sogdian merchants in the northwest had already sold the paper back to their hometown in Central Asia.
However, the relatively complete papermaking technology only spread in the Tang Dynasty. It is said that after the Battle of Talas, some Tang Dynasty soldiers were captured by the Arab army. Because they mastered advanced military and production technology, they were very valued. Some of them were papermaking craftsmen. Just in Samarkand, he guided the Arabs to establish a paper mill to produce hemp paper of average quality - of course, this was already a very advantageous technology for regions outside East Asia.
The Arab profiteers did business much faster than the Tang people. As they expanded, hemp paper was being sold everywhere. In order to facilitate sales, they built factories in Cairo, Egypt, and Fes, Morocco to sell paper to the Mediterranean world.
Egypt was previously the home of papyrus, a plant that has been used as paper for thousands of years. This material was so precious that it was called "pa-per-aa" by the Egyptians, which means "the property of the Pharaoh." Until later generations, the word paper in many European languages was derived from this word.
However, after papermaking was introduced, the locals quickly gave up planting sedge and switched to reeds and other crops more suitable for papermaking due to the great technical advantages. Later, the sedge simply disappeared. It is not known whether it was extinct or became wild.
Europe's technology is relatively backward, so it can only import paper in large quantities. As one of the cultural centers of Tianfangjiao in the world, Spain is the center of paper export, and the French buy paper from there all year round. Other countries also relied on the trade routes in Spain and Italy to import enough paper.
After the establishment of the Purple Horde Khanate, a new round of technological changes began. They brought better craftsmanship from the east, improving technology again.
In addition to several previous crops, the Purple Horde also introduced bamboo. This plant grows quickly and can grow in warmer southern Europe. At first, it was actually brought by Guo Gai and others to decorate their houses for the sake of "elegance". However, it soon spread and was used in all aspects.
However, the Purple Horde Khanate almost never exported paper. On the contrary, they often had to buy it from Egypt, even if the quality was not as good as theirs, they still had to buy it. Because since the introduction of printing, paper has actually not been enough.
Contrary to common sense, the efficiency of block printing is not necessarily lower than that of movable type. Especially for Chinese characters, the advantages of movable type are not great, and the development may not be as fast as engraving.
By the late Qing Dynasty, fully mature printing had reduced the price of books to very low levels. According to British surveys, ordinary practical books are very cheap. The price of a pamphlet is even lower than a bowl of noodles; and if the printing workshop uses female workers, the price can be even lower.
The reason why it can be achieved to this extent is that there are many workers in the society who can read and make plate, including female workers, which greatly reduces the cost.
On the other hand, copying books was also very popular. Due to the existence of a large number of lower-level literati, small batches of book duplication can be completed entirely through copying. The wages of these "Kong Yiji" are lower than those of movable type printing, and their artistry is also better than theirs.
Under attack from both sides, movable type printing fell into an embarrassing situation. For a long time, the ecological niche was maintained by printing popular pamphlets that were not very popular. Because of the development of market culture in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, this kind of thing was "updated" quickly, and engravings could not keep up, and Kong Yiji and others could not copy it. This left some room for survival...
Under the influence of these various factors, the magical literacy rates in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China were produced.
Of course, these numbers can only be used as a rough reference, because the standards of "literacy" vary so much.
For example, according to American standards, according to statistics in 1918, half of the Protestant churchgoers could easily read the New Testament. Considering that the literacy rate during the Republic of China was not as good as that of the Qing Dynasty, and the quality of the church members was also very uneven, this data is very exaggerated.
Similarly, in 1896, statistics in Hawaii found that 25% of Chinese female immigrants could read. Considering that the women who traveled across the ocean at that time were basically unlikely to be from the upper class of society, either the cultural environment at that time was not as backward as later generations imagined, or the American standards were too loose. Of course, it might be both...
Therefore, if this technology develops, not to mention what effect it can achieve, at least it should be enough to bully the uneducated Europeans. In fact, this does not require the support of modern data. After all, the ancients also knew the importance of education.
Different from the past history that Guo Kang knew, in this world, mature printing technology was directly brought over by the Purple Horde Khanate. From the beginning, Patriarch Zhang collected most of the craftsmen and machines to print his missionary pamphlets every day. Enjoyable.
Because of these factors, printing was so politically incorrect from the beginning that almost every other church tried to ban its members from using print and printed matter. Even if it is difficult to completely ban private printing due to management capacity issues, the ban must still be maintained at least in important related fields such as religion, theology, and philosophy.
Faced with this situation, the Purple Horde Khanate simply let itself go, printed a large number of scriptures and commentaries, and sold them everywhere. This was considered to confirm the previous accusations, and opponents such as the Roman Catholic Church were very angry about this.
Many clergymen insisted that this printing technology was a definite technical heresy and was evil from the moment it appeared. Some radical people even think that this is a process invented by the devil. Therefore, not only it itself, but also all uses must be prohibited, including its introduction, research and transformation.
Most people are not so exaggerated overall, but they are undoubtedly quite bored. In this environment, the field of theology and philosophy is actually in a state of being subject to a printing ban. In contrast, the books here are even more precious.
(End of chapter)
