Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 858 Cultural Bookstore
Having seen the new domestic servants, Zhao Yingong has already made up his mind - judging from the resources he currently has, it is not enough to directly intervene in the circulation of raw silk and silkworm cocoons.His capital is limited. Delong's foothold in the local area is not stable at the beginning, and he will certainly not be able to mobilize too much funds. In the end, the capitalists in Jiangnan must be more difficult to deal with than those in Leizhou. The gentry and bureaucrats are in the background.The situation is much more difficult than that of Leizhou Station and Guangzhou Station, and the interests of local powerful people cannot be directly touched, lest they will be strongly rebounded and the success will fall short.

After thinking about it, the most suitable thing right now is to intervene in the production of raw silk.As a traveler, the most advantageous thing is of course to use Lingao's scientific and technological capabilities to open a modern semi-mechanized silk reeling factory to produce high-quality raw silk.Judging from Wang Siniang's description, the indigenous method of silk reeling not only has low production efficiency, but also poor quality.If cheap and high-quality products produced by industrialization are used to impact the existing market.From quantitative change to qualitative change is a very fast thing.

The ones most hurt by this are self-supporting and self-reeling silkworm farmers like the Shen family. Zhao Yingong has no doubt that once the silk reeling factory is put into operation, the impact will cause tens of thousands of silkworm farmers to go bankrupt, lose their land and property, and live on the streets.And he was the one who started it all.

However, such a situation is beneficial to the Traveling Group.The senate's consistent policy on agriculture is to destroy small production. A large and stable class of small farmers, no matter whether they own their own land or farm, is something that the senate does not want to see - the senate needs a lot of freedom hired labor.

In addition to silk reeling, intensive sericulture cultivation is also promising.Zhao Yingong has seen the productivity explosion brought about by the Agricultural Committee's agricultural improvement and agricultural technology promotion in Lingao. If similar practices are introduced to Hangzhou, the output and quality of mulberry leaves and silkworm cocoons will definitely be greatly improved.

However, both links depend on Lingao's technical and material support.Zhao Yingong himself knew nothing about silk reeling machines or sericulture.Zhao Yingong decided to use the old method and go to the field to investigate first.

He has already made up his mind to open a silk reeling factory, but in order to open a silk reeling factory, a series of problems such as land, factory buildings, equipment, workers and raw material sources must be solved.

The technical content of the silk reeling factory is limited, so it is not too difficult for the machinery factory to imitate a set of silk reeling equipment in the late 19th century. The silk reeling factory does not need much power equipment, and there is no need for a steam engine, and the water wheel is enough.Zhao Yingong had considered water turbines when he designed "Crossing the Textile Industry".

If you want to run a factory and use water turbine power, you need land.The land needs to be large enough, and there must be a river nearby—whether it is planting mulberry or running a silk reeling factory, there is no need for a large amount of water.To meet these conditions, the city of Hangzhou is obviously not suitable.You have to keep your eyes outside the city.

Zhao Yingong has long planned for this piece of land - he has long been interested in Fenghuang Mountain outside the Fengshan Gate.This is the original location of Da Nei in the Southern Song Dynasty, and it was in the city in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, when Zhang Shicheng built the new city wall of Hangzhou, he blocked Phoenix Mountain outside the city.In the 14th year of the Yuan Dynasty, the Southern Song Palace on Fenghuang Mountain suffered a fire, and most of it was destroyed.Ten years later, Yang Lian Zhenjia invited Yuan Ting to build five Buddhist temples on Fenghuang Mountain using the building bases, remnants of buildings and building materials in the Southern Song Dynasty.These five temples were also annihilated successively in the Yuan Dynasty, and finally were completely destroyed in the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.By the end of the Ming Dynasty, Phoenix Mountain had completely become a desolate place with few people.Zhao Yingong has already inquired about it—although this place is close to the city wall, it is a very deserted place, with almost no people except for a few small villages.

But for Zhao Yingong, this place is very suitable. The land price in the barren land will not be high, which meets his current limited economic conditions. Since the palace can be built, it can be seen that the local terrain will not be rough, it must be a relatively flat slope.In addition to building houses, a large number of mulberry trees can be planted on the slopes to provide mulberry leaves for sericulture.Moreover, Fenghuang Mountain is adjacent to Zhonghe River on one side and Qiantang River on the other side, so it is more convenient to divert water for power or production and domestic water.If you want to open more factories in the future, you can get water and drainage nearby.

In the future, Hangzhou Station will also need to handle population transfers—it would be inappropriate to set up the purification camp in one’s own mansion. First, there is no such a large place. Second, this is a high-end residential area in the city. It is too annoying for a large number of poor people to enter and exit Zhao’s house. I paid attention.Phoenix Mountain can be regarded as a place that is very close to the city and does not attract attention.

Finally, Fenghuang Mountain is next to Qiantang River, and it is also a commanding height of Fengshan Gate.When the Taiping Army attacked Hangzhou, they seized it as an important siege base.Controlling here is equivalent to preparing a suitable dock for transferring refugees and receiving naval ships.For Zhao Yingong, who claims to be a descendant of the Song Dynasty, Phoenix Mountain also has a special political meaning.He must win this commanding height.

Of course, the remnants of the entire Fenghuangshan Palace, starting from Tiaoxuwan in the south, extending to Wansong Ridge in the north, along the west bank at the end of the Zhonghe River in the east, and reaching the eastern foot of Fenghuang Mountain in the west, have a circumference of nine miles.With such a large area, Zhao Yingong certainly has neither the strength nor the need to buy it all—he is here to start a business after all, not to set up a Southern Song Dynasty palace ruins park for himself to pay tribute to.He immediately ordered Cai Shi and Sun Wangcai to go to the local area to inquire about the land ownership and approximate land price in the Phoenix Mountain area, and at the same time investigate "places where manors can be established."

Then he drafted a telegram and reported his ideas and plans to the Foreign Intelligence Service.Including all kinds of support he expects: money, machinery and equipment, and specialized technical personnel.

While waiting for a reply, Zhao Yingong looked around for other business opportunities - not only to make money, but also to try to open up a local circle of friends.

He considered setting up a printing factory—movable type printing and lithographic printing are the most profitable technologies mastered by the time-traveling group in this time and space, not to mention that they also have a lot of resources that can be "plagiarized".In particular, there are many originals that have been carefully collated in the old time and space. These versions are reprinted in large quantities, and the quality of the content can surpass the general books sold in this time and space bookstore, not to mention the printing quality of the books themselves.

The engraving and printing industry in Jiangnan was famous at that time.This has a lot to do with the flourishing style of writing in the south of the Yangtze River.Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou all have large-scale bookstores, which integrate editing, publishing, printing and sales.A sizeable industry has formed.So the market is absolutely not lacking.

Moreover, the book was a kind of "elegant thing" in the concept at that time. After all, the book was related to the scholar. In a society where knowledge is monopolized by a few people, the book not only has practical value, but also has cultural and psychological significance. Bookstore owners who compile and sell books are relatively "elegant", and they are easy to be "highly regarded" when dealing with literati and refined scholars.

But printing plants still need equipment, technology and personnel.These things are currently only available in Lingao.As far as Zhao Yingong knows, so far, the problem of engraved type in movable type casting in movable type printing has not been well resolved.For this reason, before departure, the person in charge of the printing office specifically asked him to pay attention to whether he could find some master engraving craftsmen from Jiangnan to work in Gao.Fortunately, engravers may also be able to carry out the work of engraving fonts.

Thinking of this, Zhao Yingong couldn't help but secretly smiled bitterly—it seems that it is really not easy to accomplish things by himself.If you wear it alone, it is indeed very difficult.

However, the difficulty of opening a bookstore is much smaller after all. Zhao Yingong thought that even if there is no movable type printing, it is possible to directly use the engraving printing industry. This is a ready-made technology in the local area. The paper and engraving workers are all ready-made, as long as you invest in it yourself.

After all, simply opening a bookstore is still the work of a businessman.The scribes are at most "high view" and don't really treat them equally.Or do it a little more elegantly.Zhao Yingong suddenly thought of some so-called "cultural bookstores" opened in the old time and space. They all have tea seats or coffee seats. People who buy books can read books at will, make a cup of tea and flip through the books. ... Everyone still thinks it is very elegant and artistic.I don't know how to introduce this idea into Daming?

Let’s think about it a bit more, this bookstore should have as many books as possible to create a library atmosphere.Not only should there be books such as Classics and History Sub-collections, but we might as well introduce some so-called "Australian books" printed in Lingao.These books are much better than the books in this time and space in terms of printing quality, paper, and content, and can be used as a "rare item" to attract readers-any business must have a "selling point".

In addition to books, he thought he could also bring paper, stationery and other small items for sale in Australia.In this way, it is easy to distinguish from ordinary bookstores, and avoids grabbing the business of ordinary bookstores.It is also possible to set up a membership-based book lending mechanism, allowing readers to borrow books home for free without buying books.Then, in the name of registered members, conduct a census of local knowledge relations.Of course, the biggest benefit is "fame".Books in ancient times are rare things. Not only are there few types, but also the price is high. The average poor literati only have a few Four Books and Five Classics and anthologies necessary for exams. Some large and rare books can only be borrowed from those who have a library at home.Because books are rare, people who have books are generally reluctant to lend them out easily. During this period, they will inevitably have to worry about talking and running around to ask for help.Located in ancient China, countless topics, stories and legends have been derived from collecting and borrowing books.

(End of this chapter)