Chapter 317 Smash Job

  Qin Lang is not a qualified businessman, because he does not pursue the maximization of profits.

  In the courtyard, a yellow leaf slowly fell with the wind.

   "Do you think the departure of the leaves is the wind's pursuit, or the tree's refusal to retain?"

  The young Chengqian was calculating. Hearing what the teacher said, he looked up at the tree in the courtyard and saw the leaf, "Autumn is here."

  Qin Lang chuckled, this answer is quite straightforward. Or, does this mean that Chengqian is not a man of liberal arts? Or that he will be a straight man in the future and doesn't understand romance?

   In a blink of an eye, the hot summer season is coming to an end, and autumn is here.

  When I wake up in the morning, I can already feel very cool, although it is still hot at noon and people feel dry.

"Teacher, the Three-Character Classic and the Thousand-Character Classic are almost sold out. Teacher's Taibai Collection has been engraved and started to be printed. So far, more than 3,000 copies have been printed." Cheng Qian is now like a small steward, but he is deeply involved in book printing In his career, Qin Lang also intends to cultivate his hands-on ability.

"Our Chongxian Museum Printing Bureau has recruited a total of 100 skilled engravers, 1,000 engraving apprentices, 20 typewriters, 20 proofreaders, and 100 other printers and watchmakers. ..."

   "Our Jixian Bookstore has now opened a hundred branches in Chang'an, Luoyang, Yangzhou and other big cities, covering the fifteenth road of the Tang Dynasty, covering one of the nearly three states in the Tang Dynasty."

  The printing technique has been approved by the emperor, but the emperor previously opposed Qin Lang's plan to directly lower the book price, and asked him to maintain a market price for the time being.

  Three-Character Classic and Thousand-Character Classic are therefore sold in volumes of one hundred characters.

  The engraving and printing of books on the market did not cause much shock. Because of the price, some people did not realize the huge impact this technological innovation would bring, and some even thought it was copied by hand.

   There are also sensitive booksellers who have discovered it, but they haven't discovered the secrets inside.

  Qin Lang refused to hand over the books directly to booksellers for sale. He called up the military and upstart families who had previously engaged in partnerships in bamboo paper, ink, etc., and suggested that everyone join in partnership and establish Jixian Library.

Qin Lang’s Jixian Bookstore is the first to adopt the model of franchise stores. The headquarters is Donggong, the Qin family and other joint ventures, and then the Qin family is responsible for the operation and management. The Jixian Bookstore in Chang’an is the main store, and then in other places To open a franchise store, each partner will open a franchise store and manage and operate it separately.

The main store formulates operating rules, and even designs a unified store style, signs, advertisements, etc., and even the store decoration and furnishings are all standardized, store style, product display, price standards, and even service concepts, after-sales attitude, etc., All are uniform standards.

  All branch store personnel must first be trained in the main store, and the books of the branch stores are also transferred from the main store.

  The advantage of this model is that firstly, Jixian Bookstore can quickly blossom everywhere and expand in scale, and secondly, it can be managed in a unified manner, forming a better image, and thus reducing costs. Furthermore, considering that everyone earns money, each company divides the territory, opens branches, and manages them separately, so that everyone can make money.

  The main store also provides training, guidance, etc. to avoid mismanagement by various companies.

Jixian Bookstore is a newly opened national chain franchise bookstore. Its main business is selling books, and then stationery such as paper, ink, pens and inkstones. business services.

  Shandong military upstarts are not short of money, but everyone has a weakness that they lack background, and they are called nouveau riche by the gentry. Therefore, Qin Lang's chain franchise model is still liked by everyone. This kind of group cooperation avoids the weakness of the lack of professional manpower, and can form a strong competitiveness in partnership.

  This model itself is to break into the market of books and stationery, and this market was originally controlled by those big gentry.

  During this time, Jixian Bookstore was busy digging people, opening new stores, and training.

  The store has not yet officially opened for business, but the preparations are almost done.

  Chengqian suggested that when Jixian Bookstore opened, Qin Lang's Taibai poetry anthology should be the main hit item to attract scholars to enter the store.

  Since Qin Lang was regarded as a poetic fairy, many booksellers have found people to copy many manuscripts of Qin Lang's poems for sale. Qin Lang's poems are the most popular popular book today.

Chengqian asked Qin Lang to write some more poems, so the poet Qin Lang and Qin Taibai, nicknamed Qinglian Layman, secretly published Taibai's poetry anthology with thirty-six poems, more than half of which were never published before, Chengqian thought so For one thing, their Taibai poetry anthology is more competitive than other poetry anthologies outside, such as Qin Xueshi anthology.

  Qin Lang was very satisfied with Chengqian's ability, "Have you finished the homework assigned in class today?"

   Chengqian felt a little headache when he heard the homework. Since he followed Qin Lang, he felt that the door to a new world had been opened, such as engraving and printing, and opening a bookstore. These were much more interesting than listening to the lectures of the direct bachelors.

  But although Qin Lang took him to play, he didn't condone him, and would still ask him to complete normal homework.

   "It's done."

   "Bring me to check."

Chengqian took out his homework, "Teacher, I think we will have a good start when we open Jixian Bookstore this time. Taibai poetry anthology is our main blockbuster, so we have to set a low price, and we will set it at thirty-six coins." How about a book?"

Now the engraving printing technology of the Chongxian Museum Printing Bureau is becoming more and more proficient, and there are more manpower. As long as a plate prints more than a thousand copies, the cost is far lower than that of hand-written copies. The higher the quantity, the lower the cost. After all, engraving printing The relatively large expenses are writing and engraving, proofreading, etc. The subsequent printing and binding costs are very low, and ink, bamboo and paper are all fixed expenses.

  The anthology of Taibai poetry has been printed in more than 3,000 volumes, and the cost has been reduced to about one penny per page. A hardcover 18-page anthology of Taibai poetry costs 18 yuan at most. If it is reprinted, the cost can be amortized.

  Sell for thirty-six dollars, and you can earn half and half.

   But compared to the current market, this is a difference of ten times.

This is incomparable in the current hand-copied book market anyway. The high cost of hand-copied books is due to the high cost of paper, ink and pens, and the high labor costs for copying books. The literacy rate in the Tang Dynasty was actually not high, and the writing Fortunately, those who are willing to copy books are generally scholars of ordinary background, and there are not many of these scholars.

  The number of copyists is small, which means that the price of copying books has always been high, and this is basically the lowest price.

  The price of hand-copied books is high, and it is difficult to increase the quantity. This is of course nothing compared to the Chongxian Museum Printing Bureau, which can quickly publish thousands of copies of books.

  The emperor didn't let Qin Lang and the others set the price too low, he had his own consideration.

  Qin Lang also gave the emperor time, and now the printing press and bookstores have opened up.

Another key is the low-cost bamboo paper and ink needed for printing. The supply is also up now. After the research of bamboo paper papermaking and ink technology, Qin Lang authorized it to the original partners and let them share it. For these two technologies, paper-making and ink-making workshops were set up in designated areas.

  The workshops of each family have to pay corresponding fees to the research institute chaired by Qin Lang every year. Half of this fee is used for the research institute to continue to research technology, and the other half is used as dividends for the previous shareholding of each company.

   This is considered the earliest patent fee, because it is all from his own family, so everyone agrees with Qin Lang's patent money.

   This is also more fair, and it can also avoid disorderly competition. After the areas are divided, they will operate independently, and how much money they make depends on their own business capabilities.

  As far as Qin Lang is concerned, sharing the technology will greatly increase the supply of bamboo paper and ink, and the cost of printing will naturally be greatly reduced.

This saves a lot of manpower and material resources compared to the Chongxian Museum's own research on technology and the construction of paper and ink workshops, printing and bookstores, and bookstores. The most important thing is to ensure the scale, and scale is naturally one of the best ways to reduce costs. one.

  All technologies are in hand, and everything is done by yourself, which will inevitably lead to difficulty in expanding the scale and greatly increasing management costs.

   That's a thankless job.

   What's more, through this kind of benefit sharing, Qin Lang also achieved his goal of closely linking upstarts of military meritorious service in Shandong.

  Silently laying down fuzi, grass snakes and gray lines lurking thousands of miles away, each of the seemingly useless leisurely things now has a deep meaning.

  That's why Qin Langcai doesn't care too much about the bookstore setting high prices to make money. What he wants is control.

Just like those Internet tycoons in later generations, they don't care whether they start to win or not, and they don't care about burning money. What they want is the market rate. As long as the market rate burns up, then it is worth burning more money. One is the outlook.

  The prospect is good, and if the market rate is increased, it will be worth any amount of money, and people will rush to give away any amount of money. Even if he loses money for ten or eight years, the market value will burn higher and higher, and the more money he loses, the more valuable he is.

   This is a kind of Internet thinking, Cheng Qian is still too young to understand.

  Li Shimin was considering the profound impact of engraving and printing books, so he asked Qin Lang to give him some time arrangements.

All is ready except for the opportunity.

   Before the official opening of Jixian Bookstore, Qin Lang went to the palace to meet the emperor and gave a report. The name of Jixian Bookstore was drafted by the emperor, and he wrote the plaque himself.

   "Are you going to open?"

   "Well, everything is ready."

The Three-Character Classic, the Thousand-Character Classic, and the Anthology of Taibai Poetry, these three books are engraved and printed books, and they are also the main hits of the new store opening. In addition, they will also sell paper, ink, pens and inkstones, especially bamboo paper and new-style pine smoke ink. The cost has been greatly reduced due to technological improvement, so this time the price will be lowered a lot.

   If you don't make a song, you're done. It's a blockbuster.

  Jixian Bookstore is ready to release satellites. Books are sold by page, and paper is sold by knife.

   This is going to be a revolution!

  Books and paper and ink will plummet ten times or more!

  Li Shimin tapped his finger on the imperial case, "For scholars all over the world, this is an unprecedented blessing. For copyists, this may be a waste of their jobs."

"Your Majesty, you can't call it a smashing job. Engraving and printing can't replace hand-copied books. The market for hand-copied books will still be huge. Even if we occupy some of their space, the printing and publishing bureau will still hire many scribes to write editions." , proofreading."

This is the progress of the times. The price of books, paper and ink has plummeted, which will inevitably mean that more people will be able to read books. For Li Shimin, this made him see the impact of the landlords of the common people and even ordinary people on the status of the nobles. future.

  The common landlords will also rise up!

  (end of this chapter)