Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1068

"Go and see the Royal Paper Mill."

After leaving the weaving factory where the looms were roaring, the emperor went to the paper factory. The paper factory is also in the south of the city, but it is not actually a real paper factory.

According to the introduction of the factory manager, this place is equivalent to a packaging yard.

"Today, our Royal Paper Mill has more than 200 paper mills in more than 100 counties in more than [-] provinces across the country. Jute paper, mulberry paper, Teng paper, straw paper, and even newly developed materials such as bamboo paper to make paper , can be said to be extremely rich.”

"His Majesty gave us 100 million sticks from Neikuba to open a factory and develop a new paper-making process. We hired excellent craftsmen from all over the country to study with great concentration, and now it is very effective. Now we not only use old linen to make paper, but also start Using wild hemp to make paper, wild hemp has a wide range of sources and sufficient sources, and the cost is low, without occupying fields for planting, and without manual care."

Paper mills buy a large amount of wild hemp from the common people. The common people can collect all kinds of wild hemp in the fields, and then sell them to the buying merchants, and earn a fortune. For the paper mill, the cost of this wild hemp is undoubtedly greatly reduced. .

"Your Majesty, now we have formed a large-scale production of hemp paper in Shu. We have a large number of hemp paper workshops in Shu, producing all kinds of hemp paper with hemp as raw material. The technology is constantly improving and the cost is constantly decreasing. The quality has also improved by leaps and bounds.”

"In the Guanzhong area, we use Tengpi and leather paper as the main raw materials to make leather paper."

"In the south of the Yangtze River, we mainly produce bamboo paper. After our research, the bamboo paper technology is very mature and stable. Bamboo is everywhere in the south of the Yangtze River. Using young bamboo to make paper has stronger fibers and better paper toughness, and the cost of bamboo paper is very low. Much cheaper than Ma and Tengbu."

The field manager proudly told the emperor.

In the past few years, their papermaking has expanded rapidly, and the output of papermaking is quite amazing now.

"Under His Majesty's repeated requests, we have lowered the price of paper tenfold in the past few years."

This is quite amazing, the price of paper has dropped tenfold, what does that mean?
In the past, books were made into volumes in the form of scrolls or folded pages, and the price of books was also extremely expensive. Any volume of a book was worth several thousand dollars. Most people couldn't afford books at all, so they could only copy books.

But copying paper, ink, and pens are very expensive.

Even in the imperial government office, the consumption of paper and ink has become a huge expense.

The emperor previously used millions of dollars to invest in research and development of papermaking, to improve the process, and to expand production. Today, some basic paper products have dropped by as much as ten times compared to the past. Although there are some high-quality papers, the price is still very expensive, even higher than It used to be more expensive, but after all, for more scholars or public offices, there is no need to use such good paper.

"In the past, government offices all used Teng paper, and several counties that produced Teng paper cut off all Teng paper, which caused the price of Teng to rise again and again, and the government's paper expenditure also increased greatly, and some government officials even had no paper to use. Since His Majesty ordered us to study papermaking, all government offices are now using hemp paper for office work, and the cost has dropped tenfold."

"The printing of books on bamboo paper combined with woodblock printing has reduced the price of books by dozens of times. In the past, a page of a book cost at least a few tens of pennies, but now a page of a book only costs a few pennies."

In the past, a set of 3 poems was divided into four volumes. The whole book only had more than [-] characters, but it was sold for dozens of pennies, almost a penny per word.

But now, the Royal Printing Bureau uses cheap bamboo paper and engraving printing technique to print thousands of copies at a time, which greatly reduces the cost, and even the engraving board can be used repeatedly.

Now a set of The Book of Songs only costs two pennies, which is equivalent to only five hundred coins for one volume.

"This is really a blessing to scholars all over the world."

When the host mentioned this, he couldn't hide his excitement and pride.In the past, most of the copyists in Luoyang started at a price of [-] yuan per volume, and each volume cost [-] characters.Copying [-] characters costs [-] yuan, but we know that the cost is high.

The Royal Weaving Bureau, the Royal Papermaking Bureau, the Royal Printing Bureau, and the Royal Pharmaceutical Bureau... Each workshop with the royal name has expanded rapidly and advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years.

Although the emperor invested a lot at the beginning, the output today is even more astonishing.

The Royal Shipbuilding Bureau, the Royal Mint Bureau, and the Royal Maritime Trade Bureau... are also continuously bringing wealth to the emperor.

"Papermaking technology needs to continue to invest time, energy and cost in research. It is necessary to develop more paper and reduce the cost of paper. Books, after these books are collected, the imperial court will send special personnel to sort them out, proofread them, and even repair and rescue them. Books are the treasures of our human beings, and they cannot be destroyed or lost.”

"After sorting out these books, they will be collected in the Royal Library. For some important books, they will be engraved and printed, and they will be stored in Liujing and Fendao County School. Even some ordinary books will be copied Several copies are stored in the library and left to future generations."

Not only that, the emperor even made the Ministry of Secretaryship responsible for sorting and categorizing all the existing books in the world, classifying them according to the four major categories of classics and history subsets, and then compiling the catalog and revising the Siku Quanshu.

As for some of these books, the Nine Classics of Confucianism, the official history of various dynasties, etc., Luo Cheng also plans to publish them separately. Many ordinary people can understand it.

But to make these books become textbooks and books for the common people, they have to be cheaper, get out of the ivory tower, and enter the secular world.

When a book only costs a few hundred or even tens of dollars, then it can be said that there is a real boom in culture and education. Although this seems unrealistic, Luo Cheng does not want to promote him.

The owner showed Luo Cheng a copy of the ledger, and Luo Cheng found out that he had invested 100 million yuan in it at the beginning. Over the past few years, the Paper Bureau now has more than 100 paper mills and more than 2 paper workers. And every year, a large number of temporary workers are temporarily hired, but now there is already a surplus.

The investment of 100 million guan has now come out, and there are still 10,000+ guan left.

This is the result of the emperor's repeated request to lower the price of paper. Seeing this, Luo Cheng couldn't help but marvel. Could it be that papermaking technology developed rapidly during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, but paper was still so expensive? Technology refuses to be promoted because the business is too profitable.

Luo Cheng couldn't help laughing when he thought of the memorials made by courtiers in recent years, calling the emperor's ministerial bureaus and fighting for profit with the people.

It seems that he, the emperor, has touched the cheese of these people, and they are very unhappy.

It is estimated that if he is not the emperor, but just a nouveau riche, with such a fierce operation, he would have been beaten to death by these gentry long ago, right?

Compete with the people?

Bullshit, he developed the royal bureaus within the rules formulated by the imperial court. He neither evaded taxes nor evaded taxes, nor did he do anything to bully others.

Not to mention a large amount of investment has brought about technological innovation and industrial upgrading, but these people just pretend not to see it, and just blindly say that the emperor's royal bureau is competing for profit with the people.

Among the ministers of the court, which family has no property?Whose family only relies on salary and land?Basically no one is like this, every family has more or less other industries, or engages in mortgage lending, or engages in trade, or engages in workshop production, who will give up this one?
Luo Cheng thought, is he going to issue a law to prohibit officials from doing business with their family members?

Didn't they mean to compete for profit with the people? Then they are officials, and they shouldn't compete with the people for profit.

However, the emperor just shook his head. It is estimated that even if the law is issued, it will be invalid. After all, officials are not allowed to do business for a long time, but they have some ways to bypass it, such as letting offshoots or relatives, or even only buying shares. Or even simply find an agent without leaving a name.

Compete with the people for profit.

Those who shouted the loudest were those civil servants of the gentry, but the upstart military veterans would not shout, because everyone was busy making money.

Perhaps, I can ask Yushitai or Huangcheng Secretary to check the details of the loudest gang to see if they are really clean.

(End of this chapter)