China has always valued agriculture over commerce, but in the Song Dynasty, people's concepts of merchants and commerce have changed a lot - people in the Song Dynasty were very money-worshipping, not emphasizing wealth and family, but they also caught up with a country that did not disturb the people.
In that era, it was easy for merchants to make money and live a prosperous life. The wealthy merchants had to be well-dressed and well-educated, and their food was to eat meat. Because of their wealth, they could communicate with princes, and their power was greater than that of officials.
His status is no worse than that of an official.
The results of doing business are so good, and now that there is no discrimination against businessmen, who is not willing to do business? Even the scholar-bureaucrats who were not ashamed to associate with businessmen have become businessmen themselves. If you don’t believe it, just go to the street and look, you will find
For example, they built a defense medicine shop, Lou Taicheng's cloth shop, Zhang Xueshi's history book shop, etc. They were not ashamed of doing business at all. Instead, they used their official positions to build signboards for the shops.
Although the imperial court does not like to live in a wealthy family and compete with the people for profit, the entire society has become commercialized, and there are many businessmen's children who have passed the imperial examination. It is impossible to order the entire family's business to close down just because one person has passed the Jinshi examination. What's more, the middle and low-level officials
The salary of the Bianjing Committee was not enough to support the family, and the court was unable to increase wages, so it could only adopt a tacit attitude of not encouraging and not objecting to the officials' families doing business.
But for high-ranking officials and well-paid people, they are not allowed to compete for profits with the people. This rule is still binding. The direct relatives of Manchu ministers will not go into business... However, the court does not prohibit officials from taking shares and making profits. So whose family
There are a few "distant relatives" of wealthy businessmen who can just invest in some stocks and enjoy huge dividends every year.
Although Chen Ke is not a high-ranking official, he is already in the limelight. He must not be involved in business anymore. In fact, he has not participated in any business for a long time. Including these businesses, the owners and shopkeepers registered with the government have no relatives with him.
Relationship. Chen Ke only participated in it, and definitely did not occupy the majority.
Whether it is a helpless move or Chen Ke's strategy, in short, this method of paying for others to be the boss also ensures that the 18th manager will not deceive superiors and conceal others and line their own pockets... because the business is inherently
It's theirs.
Therefore, Chen Ke was not too worried about the huge debt problem, because first of all, he did not actually contribute the money, but borrowed money from the Bianjing Money Company, and the debtor was not him, but the firms themselves. So eighteen
The manager will be more anxious than himself, and he will definitely try his best to make the business bigger and stronger, and strive to get rid of the huge debt as soon as possible.
And he is not worried about the issue of control, because through the complex equity design, he will lose decision-making power only if the Qingshen Consortium and the Blue Hat Chamber of Commerce oppose it at the same time. If a decision will cause opposition from both of his iron teams, then this will
It's definitely a bad idea, just don't do it.
Chen Ke believed that a warship built with this design, with people from the Qingshen Consortium at the helm and people from the Qingshen Consortium supervising the course, would be able to ride the wind and waves in this business era and have a bright future without having to do anything on his own.
As for the work of Xiaomei and Yue'e, they are just to keep an eye on their own money bags to prevent the Qingshen Consortium from colluding with the Blue Hat Chamber of Commerce without them being aware of it. It can be regarded as adding the final patch to his design...
After dealing with his worries, Chen Ke could finally go into battle with ease and go on a big mission.
"The so-called big thing, I'm afraid I'll have to spend money again." Zhou Dingkun couldn't stop laughing: "Sir, you just promised that day that you wouldn't spend money randomly."
"But you also said that you can't save money that should be spent." In the front study, Chen Ke said with a smile: "Is that what you said?"
"Yes..." Zhou Dingkun said with a bitter face: "Tell me what you want to do first?"
"Well," Chen Ke nodded, pulled the vertical line at hand, and Chen Xin walked in and asked, "What are your orders, sir?"
"Is Mr. Shen here?" Chen Ke asked.
"Here he is, waiting in the front hall."
"Invite me soon," Chen Ke said and stood up again: "Forget it, I'll go."
He quickly came to the teahouse. When Shen Kuo heard some movement, he quickly stood up and saluted: "I pay my respects to you, sir."
"Brother Cunzhong, I've kept you waiting for a long time." Chen Ke walked over, patted his shoulder affectionately and said, "But you also kept me waiting for a long time."
"Ashamed..." Shen Kuo smiled awkwardly and said, "I am not the son of a man." It is said that when he left Dali last year, Chen Ke wanted to get Shen Kuo to be an official in the capital, but he sized up the situation and rejected Chen Ke's kindness, lest the city The door caught fire, affecting the fish in the pond.
But his reasons are quite good... He said that he deeply understands that in the officialdom, Jinshi is the last word. So he is not planning to be an official again for the time being. He wants to concentrate on studying for two years and get a Jinshi.
Of course, Chen Ke didn't want to say anything, but he just told him to read more of the books he gave him when he had time, and also asked him to do a favor. Shen Kuo had feelings for Chen Ke, and it wouldn't be wrong to say that the two of them cherished each other. Because I didn't want to cause trouble, I rejected the other party's kindness, so I already felt deeply guilty, so I naturally agreed.
It took Shen Kuo eight months to complete the task that Chen Ke had asked him to do. He wanted to leave it to him while attending the wedding. Unexpectedly, he was delayed for a few days due to illness on the way. By the time he arrived in the capital, the wedding had already ended. Five days... This is why Chen Ke said, you kept me waiting for so long.
"Long time no see, why are we so different?" Chen Ke took him to the study with his arm and said, "Let's talk inside."
The two of them sat down in the study, and Zhou Dingkun sat beside him. Because there was an extra person, and he didn't look like me, Shen Kuo didn't know what to say.
"This is my good friend Mr. Zhou." Chen Ke introduced him: "His brother is Zhou Dingqian."
"Oh." Shen Kuo had frequent contacts with Zhou Dingqian, and he suddenly understood. Since Zhou Dingqian is Chen Ke's confidant, Mr. Zhou must be fine this time: "Nice to meet you."
The three of them exchanged a few words, and Chen Ke broke the silence and said: "Brother Cunzhong said in the letter that movable type printing has been greatly improved. I have found a rich man. Tell him what progress has been made. If you can impress him, Brother Zhou will buy your design and open a movable type printing factory in Bianjing!"
Speaking of movable type printing, one of China's four great inventions was born in this era. But any invention may experience a situation where no one applauds it when it comes out. When Chen Ke asked people around him, did they know? When there was movable type printing, without exception, the answer was negative.
But Chen Ke clearly remembered that Bi Sheng was from this era and was very old. He should have invented this technology that could change the world. Therefore, he always felt that it was his duty to popularize movable type printing.
When he had enough strength, he ordered people to search for Bi Sheng across the country. However, there are no historical records about Bi Sheng's life story. It is only recorded in "Mengxi Bi Tan" written by Shen Kuo decades later... …
Moreover, Shen Kuo only described that Bi Sheng was a commoner, and did not explain anything about his place of origin or life story. So it still didn't say anything, and Chen Ke still had to find the needle in the haystack.
However, he believes that since he is a commoner, he does not study printing purely because of his hobby. Therefore, Bi Sheng must be working in the printing industry. Only those who are familiar with printing technology will realize that. The shortcomings of woodblock printing and trying to improve them.
It's just that the Song Dynasty had a great boom in literature and education, and there were printing workshops in every state and county across the country. You still had to go through a lot of trouble to find this person.
It wasn't until last winter that we found this great inventor who was unknown during his lifetime but has been glorious for eternity after his death in Yingshan County, Qizhou. Unfortunately, Bi Sheng has been dead for six years...
Fortunately, Bi Sheng did not take his invention to the grave, but selflessly passed it on to his disciple Wang Dashan.
So the people sent by Chen Ke took Wang Dashan and all his tools to Dongchuan City.
Chen Ke immediately ordered him to make movable type, so Wang Dashan used clay to make blanks of the same specifications, carved reverse single characters on one end, and burned them hard with fire, and the movable clay type was completed one by one.
At that time, Chen Ke was holding these movable clay types, and he was extremely happy. Movable type printing was far superior to woodblock printing. With this little gadget, he could profoundly influence the thinking of people in the Song Dynasty!
However, the results of the trial poured cold water on him. Facts have proved that the quality of movable type printing is not as good as that of engraving, and clay movable type cannot be used too many times. The improvement in efficiency is not significant, and the cost reduction is also very small.
Shen Kuo, Su Song and others were greatly disappointed to see that the miraculous technology he repeatedly boasted had such an effect, but Chen Ke insisted: "Movable type printing is definitely better than engraving printing. Even if it is clay movable type, when the number of printings increases, The benefits will show up too!”
Because the shortcomings of engraving printing are really huge. First, engraving is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and material-intensive. Each page needs to be engraved once. Even if there is a line of text missing, it has to be re-engraved. Therefore, the number and proficiency of the engraving workers, Directly restricts the development of the publishing industry.
Second, it is inconvenient to store a large number of book editions. One engraving of the Analects requires an entire room. A printing press can be considered a giant if it can have engravings of dozens of books.
Third, it is difficult to correct typos.
These three points can be overcome by movable type printing.
As for the problem of movable type printing itself, Chen Ke didn't worry at all, because he had Shen Kuo and Su Song. These two outstanding scientists and inventors throughout the ages were masters of solving problems.
And he also has general ideas for improvement - one is advanced lead movable type, and the other is elementary wooden movable type. From clay type to these two types, there is no obstacle in theory. The key is to see whether they can turn the theory into practice. .
Chen Ke handed over the task of lead movable type to Su Song, who was guarding the foundry, and handed over the task of wooden movable type to Shen Kuo... Separation... I promised to update it before the year, it's going to be exhausting... Please give me a few monthly tickets to comfort me. .!~!
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