Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The breakthrough in printing technology made Zhu Youjian extremely happy.

Because this technology can not only be used for printing newspapers, periodicals and books, but also for printing bills.

For example, Zhu Youjian was worried about the random collection of health fees by the Weiwei Department. With the introduction of standardized fee receipts, this can be reduced to a great extent.

As long as the corresponding stereotypes are produced, the same documents can be printed uniformly. Previous handwritten documents will be replaced and will be very difficult to forge.

In terms of finance and taxation, standardized documents can also be used. This is a big plus for tax collection.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian generously rewarded relevant officials and craftsmen, and determined the distribution of technical income:
"The imperial court presided over the breakthrough of typography and rewarded those who have meritorious service."

"So the relevant technology can be used by the court for free and there is no need to pay patent fees."

"But if outsiders use it, they have to pay."

"For example, if a special issue of the Beijing News uses this technology, it must pay corresponding patent fees."

As he spoke, he looked at Xue Fengxiang, Lu Xiang and others and said:

"The income from the Beijing News special issue is now more than 10,000 taels, and it is estimated to reach 20,000 taels."

"I will use 20,000 taels and give 10% to the craftsmen and 10% to the officials."

"You meritorious craftsmen and officials will be allocated a total of four thousand taels!"

He ordered someone to bring the silver and place it in front of them.

No one would dislike the free money.

Needless to say, those craftsmen are also officials of the Ministry of Industry. Although they are rich in salary and income, most of their income is invisible.

Unlike this reward, it was given directly by the emperor.

And this is the first income, and it can be predicted that there will be more income in the future, so they are naturally very happy.

Xue Fengxiang, Minister of Industry, smiled and said to the emperor:

"If the patent fees can continue to be this high, we will have to rely on them to make a living!"

Zhu Youjian also smiled and said:
“It’s possible to make a living from it, but there won’t always be so much in the near future.”

"This is a special profit, I will share it directly with you."

"In the future, if you get patent fees, you will have to charge small profits and overcharge!"

Taking out a special issue, Zhu Youjian said:
"From now on, newspapers printed with typefaces will be charged a royalty of one penny per copy."

“It will be reduced by one-fifth after every five years and canceled after twenty years.”

"The patent fee for books is the same. The initial patent fee is five cents, which will be reduced by one cent every five years and will be canceled after twenty years."

This price was far beyond the expectations of Xue Fengxiang and others. Xue Fengxiang said hesitantly:
"Isn't that too low?"

“Not much fee!”

A newspaper charges a patent fee of one cent, that is, all newspapers in the capital are printed using lead printing, and there are thousands of copies per day, so the patent fee can only be a few thousand cents.

Their officials could only get 10%, which was a few hundred pennies, and it was divided among several people.

It is estimated that each person only gets one hundred coins per day, which feels like too little. Zhu Youjian did not feel that it was less, and he even felt that one penny was a bit too much, so he decided to reduce the cost by one-fifth every five years to reduce patent costs and promote technology promotion.

Regarding Xue Fengxiang’s question, he explained:

"Now all the newspapers in the capital combined, only a few thousand copies are published every day."

"But after the promotion of stereotype printing, the limit on the number of printings was lifted. As long as someone needs it, tens of thousands of copies can be printed quickly."

"There are about a million people inside and outside the capital, and the number of literate people is at least 100,000. They are even willing to buy novels. As long as the content of the newspaper is good and the price is affordable, these people are willing to spend a few pennies to buy a newspaper. of."

"According to estimates by Beijing News staff, after the large-scale rollout of type printing, the sales volume of all newspapers in Beijing may reach 100,000 copies."

"The patent fee of one penny for each newspaper is small, do you still think it is small?"

One hundred thousand copies are worth one cent each, which is one hundred thousand cents, and one share of dividend is ten thousand cents.

Ten thousand yuan can be distributed every day, which is certainly not less, even a little more.

If stereotype printing is expanded to other places and used to print books, the patent fees that can be collected will be even more. Xue Fengxiang even feels that it is too hot to handle——

This money was too much, and he was worried that other yamen would be jealous and confiscate the money.

So now he fully understands why the emperor wants to reduce the patent fee every five years, and then completely cancel it after twenty years, allowing others to use it.

In fact, if the patent fee is not canceled for a long time, it will be too jealous.

Even after Zhu Youjian calculated it, he felt that the patent fee was a bit high. After all, in his opinion, if the channels are fully expanded, it is possible for a newspaper to have a circulation of several million copies, let alone the circulation of all newspapers and periodicals.

However, in order to buy horse bones and encourage people to apply for patents and develop technology, he accepted the expense. He also decided to set an example and let the printing workshops under the supervision of the inner government pay patent royalties.

He even encouraged Wensi Institute to develop more technologies and collect more patent fees:

“Both paper and ink can be patented separately, and the patent fee will be charged based on the quantity of paper and weight of ink.”

"In the future, when technologies such as movable type and papier-mâché become mature, they can also be licensed to external parties and collect patent fees, and the period is also twenty years."

"I hope you will perfect these technologies before the patent on the printing plate expires!"

Type printing can already meet the needs of newspaper and periodical printing, but Zhu Youjian hopes to realize complete type printing.

After all, engraving wax plates is a bit time-consuming and not as fast as typesetting with movable type.

His expectation is to complete this technology within twenty years. They even developed printing machines, bringing the printing industry into the industrial age.

Because of this, he encourages the collection of patent fees and hopes that industrial and technological linkage will promote technological innovation driven by interests.

In order to standardize the collection and distribution of patent fees, Zhu You inspected the Ministry of Engineering and cooperated with Shaofu Temple to establish a Patent Technology Corporation to be responsible for related matters.

Under the Patent Technology Corporation, a patent agency was first established to help skilled people apply for and manage patents.

A patent technology development company must also be established to be responsible for the in-depth development and use of existing patented technologies to promote industrial development.

For places that cannot be taken care of for the time being, we cooperate with local businessmen and lawyers to set up local branches to collect patent fees on our behalf. I believe that with local snakes keeping an eye on them, they can be restrained to some extent.

At the same time, in order to realize the linkage between industry, academia and research, Zhu Youjian ordered the Wensi Institute to establish a Wensi School to train the craftsmen of the Wensi Institute and improve their abilities. At the same time, young craftsmen should be recruited and reserve talents should be cultivated.

All of these need to be realized by relying on the patent fees of printing technology. Therefore, after Zhu Youjian concluded this meeting, he summoned the personnel of the Internal Supervisor and Jinyiwei, intending to integrate the capital's newspaper industry, promote the explosion of the newspaper industry, and promote the development of the printing industry. (End of chapter)