Prosperous Tang Dynasty

Chapter 69: Movable Type Printing

Li Fei's business continues to expand.

At the same time that the blue and white porcelain was on the market, Li Fei took Cao Xiaozhong and his son to observe for a period of time, and bought a printing workshop and an iron workshop, both in Chang'an City, less than 2000 meters away from Li Fei's county government.

Recently, after Li Fei went to court, he always went straight to these two workshops.

As one of the four ancient inventions recognized by later generations, printing was invented in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it was upgraded to woodblock printing in the Tang Dynasty. This was the first technical revolution in printing. The technique is very mature.

The second technological revolution in printing was clay movable type printing, which greatly increased printing efficiency, but books printed with clay movable type were not very clear.The third technological revolution in printing was metal movable type, which allowed for clearer lettering.

What Li Fei has to do is to skip the second stage and directly use metal movable type printing, and to skip tin movable type and directly use copper movable type.

The reason why I bought the iron workshop was, of course, not to forge iron. In fact, the iron workshop also made bronze wares.The melting point of copper is much lower than that of iron, so it is much easier to make copper than iron.

Copper movable type was forged one by one, and the printing workshop began experiments and so on.

Movable type printing is indeed movable type printing. If only two or three books are printed, the cost is not much lower than engraving printing, but if it is dozens or hundreds of books, the cost will be reduced too much, and the speed will be much faster.

"How about it, with such printing speed and quality, what is the profit?" Li Fei called Xiao Ruoshui from the Qiqing Chamber of Commerce over and asked her to observe movable type printing.

"It turns out that printing can still be done like this. If thousands of books are printed like this, the cost can be reduced several times, and the people in the world have unlimited demand for books, and the profits are huge!" Xiao Ruoshui opened his mouth wide, very surprised .

She is a woman with great vision, so she can see the interests behind it at a glance.

Engraving printing, a book has to sell more than [-] coins to make a profit, and this kind of movable type printing, even if a book sells only a few tens of coins, it can make a lot of money.In this way, the cost of studying for the people of the world will be reduced, and even ordinary people will have the opportunity to study.

Xiao Ruoshui looked at Li Fei. This kind of technology should be dedicated to the imperial court. The influence is too great. The first one to please is the world's scholars, and it is also an extremely great contribution to the imperial court.

The purpose of the imperial court to recruit scholars is to select talents from the people of the world, and if the number of scholars increases, the number of talents will naturally increase, which will help the people to be civilized and the country strong.

Li Fei seemed to see Xiao Ruoshui's question.

"If I give you three months to operate and print as much as you want, and after three months, I will dedicate it to the imperial court. Even if the imperial court announces it to the state capitals, it will take a while. It will take five or six months. How much profit can you make?" Li Fei asked with a smile.

"Five or six months, at least 20 taels of profit, not much more!" Xiao Ruoshui thought for a while, her red lips lightened, her face was full of confidence, and she was worthy of the business circle of Datang. Strange woman.

Li Fei nodded and said, "No matter how you operate it, after deducting all costs, I want [-]% of the profit!"

"Then thank you, Lord Duke." Xiao Ruoshui said with a smile, Li Fei asked for [-]%, which meant that the remaining [-]% belonged to her, which was [-]% of all costs deducted, and she was very satisfied.

The profit of blue and white porcelain has been able to double the money earned by the Qiqing Chamber of Commerce every year, and movable type printing can earn more than 20 taels within five to six months. The profit of the Qiqing Chamber of Commerce in the next year will be several hundred thousand taels. Aspiring to become the largest chamber of commerce in Chang'an City is no problem.

"Print with all our strength for a month first, transport it to stores in various state capitals, and then start selling uniformly at that time."

"That's very good, thank you Lord Duke for your suggestion!"

After discussing with Xiao Ruoshui, Li Fei and Xiao Ruoshui finalized various matters related to movable type printing in the Qiqing Chamber of Commerce.

As a modern person, many of Li Fei's opinions are full of a sense of magnificence and advancement, which makes Xiao Ruoshui even more admire Li Fei. Qiqing Chamber of Commerce really made the right choice by relying on Li Fei.

After sending Xiao Ruoshui away, Cao Xiaozhong looked at Li Fei anxiously.

I thought that when Li Fei invented movable type printing, he and his father would work together, just like cement, tiles and pits.But Li Fei gave it to Xiao Ruoshui's Qiqing Chamber of Commerce, which made him very depressed.

Of course, Cao Xiaozhong likes to do business. Although he hasn't done it all these years, he still has some vision for making money. He doesn't blame Li Fei, but he is a little depressed because he knows that the Qiqing Chamber of Commerce is now the No. [-] business in Chang'an City. The rankings of the three major chambers of commerce are still rising. All kinds of business routes, resources, etc. are huge. The profit of movable type printing to Qiqing Chamber of Commerce is more than ten times that of their father and son.

"If I let you go to the Qiqing Chamber of Commerce, relying on the various resources of the Qiqing Chamber of Commerce, and assist Xiao Ruoshui to operate blue and white porcelain and movable type printing, would you like it?" Li Fei didn't speak, and stared at Cao Xiaozhong seriously for a while asked.

"Brother, don't tell me, I'm definitely willing to!" Cao Xiaozhong's small eyes are almost shining. For a person who likes to do business, what is more exciting than entering a chamber of commerce to participate in the operation? For so many years, Cao Xiaozhong What a great opportunity to go to the Qiqing Chamber of Commerce to assist Xiao Ruoshui in the operation of blue and white porcelain and movable type printing.

"It's just my father's side——" Cao Xiaozhong's only worry was his father, afraid that his father would be angry and beat him up.These years, his father has always forbidden him to get involved in business affairs, hoping that he can study and get a good name. Every time he dares to get involved in business affairs, he will beat him until he can't get out of bed for three days.

Although Cao Xiaozhong is careless on the surface, he likes money, messing around, etc., but he is also a full-fledged filial son who values ​​affection.

"I will help you persuade your father." Li Fei paused, and continued: "Blue and white porcelain, movable type printing, and future Linglong porcelain, my interests in the Qiqing Chamber of Commerce are too great, and the Qiqing Chamber of Commerce cannot I don't have anyone with me, that's why I thought of you, and I also believe that you will get twice the result with half the effort if you join forces with Xiao Ruoshui."

"Okay, then thank you brother, brother, don't worry, I, Cao Xiaozhong, will not let brother down." Cao Xiaozhong is very excited, this will allow him to flex his muscles and realize his dream. A lot of money, entering the Qiqing Chamber of Commerce is a start.

In this way, Li Fei and Cao Xiaozhong decided to participate in the Qiqing Chamber of Commerce.

Li Fei asked Xiao Ruoshui to come to the county mansion again at night, and mentioned Cao Xiaozhong's matter to her. Xiao Ruoshui understood it very well and did not have any objection. .

Xiao Ruoshui is a beauty, a mature beauty with a special temperament. Cao Xiaozhong's chubby cheeks turned red instantly when she saluted face to face, and the big man felt shy in front of a woman.

Lin Shiyue, who was sitting next to Li Fei, burst into a smile. At this moment, Lin Shiyue's belly was also getting bigger, but she insisted on entertaining guests with Li Fei, although because of Li Fei's relationship, Lin Shiyue also became a noble lady of the county. , but she never looked down on Xiao Ruoshui and other businessmen in the slightest. She spoke very gently with Xiao Ruoshui, and even called her sister Xiao Ruoshui.

The only person frowning was probably Cao Xiaozhong's father, Cao Chong. Cao Chong looked at Li Fei, hesitant to speak, and finally sighed, but he didn't say anything.

Li Fei noticed Cao Chong's performance, and after a while, he dragged Cao Chong to a place, wanting to talk to Cao Chong alone.

Li Fei first talked about Cao Xiaozhong's ideal all along, that doing business is not a shameful thing, from the emperor to the common people, is there anyone who does not have contact with businessmen?

Most importantly, Li Fei made a promise to Cao Chong.

That is, as long as Li Fei's status and power are still there, and Li Fei is looking after him, he can fish Cao Xiaozhong out of business at any time, at least if he wants to get fame or something, there is no limit.

"Your Majesty, needless to say, I know the virtues of that stinky boy. If he can't be successful, he can lose his fortune overnight. Since our father and son have voted under the command of the Duke, we have helped the county. Your Excellency should do things with all your heart and responsibilities. These days, Xiao Zhong and I didn’t do anything at all, but we shared tens of thousands of money from the county government, which exceeded the sum of the Cao family’s property at the time. It’s good that Zhong Zhen does something for the Duke of the county. I, Cao Chong, will also be sent by the Lord of the county!” Cao Chong has actually thought about it for a long time, and believes that Li Fei’s future will be looked after by Li Fei, even if his son Cao Xiaozhong If you have been in business all your life, it should not be difficult for the next generation to obtain fame and fame. In this case, let it go.

My son is over 20 years old, so I can't control that much.

"Uncle Cao, there is one more thing, I want to ask you." Watching Cao Chong recover after sighing, Li Fei said again.

"Why do you say this, since Xiao Zhong and I have taken refuge with you, you can just order as you please, and you will never let you down, and you still make a request, isn't this a shame for me?" Cao Chong gave Li Fei a helpless look.

Li Fei smiled and said: "Actually, it's not a big deal. I've been named the Lord of Yuhang County for a while, and Yongyetian and Shiyi have also been sealed in Yuhang County. Someone must go to Yuhang County to have a look, so I would like to ask my uncle to take a look at Yuhang County on my behalf, and confirm the 30 acres of Yongye farmland and the [-] households that have been sealed off. In addition, my uncle also knows that I have made a lot of money during this period, so I want my uncle to take it with me. [-] guan, try to buy more land in Yuhang County, even if it is [-]-[-]% higher than the market price, it doesn’t matter.”

"30 Guan, you trust me. Are you going to leave your family business in the south of the Yangtze River?" Cao Chong stared at Li Fei.

"Jiangnan is a good place, I like it very much!" Li Fei said with a smile, without saying anything more.

Only five or three months later, the great Tang Dynasty was shattered, Guanzhong, and both sides of the Yellow River will be full of wars, only Jiangnan is still stable, and the economic center of gravity is slowly shifting southward. After the Song Dynasty, the output of Jiangnan exceeded half of the country.

In the future, when the prosperous times are shattered and the Central Plains are in chaos, it is the best choice for the family business to settle in Jiangnan. After all, even in the dark age of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Jiangnan is the best and most stable place.

"Okay, I will sit in town for you for a few years and help you develop your next family business there. After all, you have your name, and Yuhang County is where your fief and Yongyetian are located. There shouldn't be any difficulties."
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(End of this chapter)