These technologies have greatly reduced the price of books, making it now almost everyone in the world can afford to read books.
But in the final analysis, it is difficult for even ordinary readers to understand too much information outside of books.
The ancients said that no one can sell firewood within a hundred miles, which means that when the distance is too far, selling firewood will definitely lose money.
Because you walk for three to five days and arrive a hundred miles away. After you sell another load of firewood and earn twenty coins, you can walk back in three to five days.
How long has this been going on? It's been seven or eight days. My wife, children, father and mother have long since run out of food.
This means that unless it has a high value density, or something that plays a major role in the overall national plan, such as grain, military equipment, etc., or you are not in a hurry.
Then it can be transported.
Under normal circumstances, long-distance transportation, in this era... is basically unimaginable.
Because of this, ordinary people have almost no channels to know what is happening in the world hundreds of miles away from themselves.
This is also the case in ancient Confucianism, which originally had a very spiritual and subtle political philosophy, but in the end it often produced either nerds or big liars, because ordinary scholars could only read dead books.
But now there is such a thing as newspapers…
At first, Ma Zhou was a little confused. What was the use of a newspaper?
It publishes world affairs, recent events, and various experiences, and conveys them to the people of the world.
But what's the use?
If you think about it, you will know that if a person does not know what is happening in a distant place, then...it means that the occurrence of these things is extremely far away from him.
So, even if he knew it, what would be the point.
On the other hand, if it is something around you, it is closely related to your own life.
So, even if there is no newspaper, people still know why they still spend money to buy newspapers...
But then, Ma Zhou also thought of it.
I am now in Hangzhou, being appointed to a prosperous place, and being ordered to be by the side of the Holy Marquis.
But King Luo Bin, Gao Ziyang, Xie Zhongyuan...
These good brothers are now either in Lingzhou, or simply in Mobei and Anbei Protectorate.
I have the conditions to understand many things, but they don't have the conditions.
And even they have...for example, they can write letters to tell them what happened here.
But as for the other soldiers, there are so many classmates who are fighting in Lingzhou and Anbei.
Don’t everyone want to know what’s going on in their hometown?
At times like this...
Newspapers are equivalent to...
Ma Zhou thought for a while and his eyes lit up.
"Holy Marquis, is this newspaper equivalent to... us sending letters home to our compatriots who are working hard in the wilderness?"
The word "family letter" originally means a label, that is, a letter sent by family members.
Since it is a letter, it may contain various contents.
But when a letter is sent as a letter home, usually the content is relatively uniform, or homogeneous - stay safe!
The existence of newspapers is equivalent to a disguised way of sending a unified letter home to the comrades and classmates who are fighting on the frontier.
Although many of my colleagues and classmates are literate themselves, most of their elders are illiterate and there is no condition to send letters home.
At this time, there is a newspaper, so that the literate colleagues can help read the words, and at the same time, it also allows the illiterate colleagues to have the conditions to become literate——
Isn't this beautiful?
Not only is it beautiful, it’s perfect!
This idea came quickly and made Ma Zhou feel more comfortable the more he thought about it, and he nodded vigorously!
After some discussion...
Li Sheng smiled slightly and said goodbye to Ma Zhou.
When it comes to new media, it is often useless when it is first born. It only exists as a toy, and its real role is gradually exerted.
Now Ma Zhou's reaction made Li Sheng feel a sense of history.
Mudd, we have finally reached this stage.
But then again...
The reason why Ma Zhou likes newspapers, coupled with his own knowledge and experience, Li Sheng also understood during the conversation, is ultimately because in this era, transportation is still too inconvenient.
During the holidays, if you really have the conditions, wouldn't it be much better to go home and have a dinner with your relatives directly than to read this newspaper or have fellow villagers and colleagues read and write letters home for you and your parents?
but……
Steam trains are still a project that seems to have little black technology, but is actually a huge project.
For a while, even Li Sheng couldn't spare the time to do it.
The key now...
It is better to arrange all the necessary conditions before that era really begins.
for example……
Coal mine!
iron ore!
Without the coal-iron complex, where would the steam age come from?
Of course, the establishment of a coal-iron complex cannot be achieved without mining.
in other words……
The top priority is still the shipyard.
During this time...
Through the efforts of Wu Meiniang, Ma Zhou and others, they made the clock by themselves and finally sold it at the ideal price.
With these more than 200,000 yuan, there is still the next stage of auction technology.
Well, we also need to include the auction house, which handles the needs of the rich and powerful families in Jiangdong to buy and sell treasures, and earns commission income from it.
Now……
The conditions are ripe for expanding the shipyard!
but……
Just when Li Sheng decided to officially start expanding multiple shipyards and start building the entire West Lake Shipbuilding Industrial Zone.
As for Wu Meiniang, she gave herself some strange and unexpected news.
recent……
Well, the wages of civilian workers have continued to rise, and... there has also been a situation where there is a price but no market!
In this era, there was little investment in construction machinery. Even if there was investment in technology, it was mainly professional craftsmen. But compared with the millions of construction machinery in later generations, it was of course still much cheaper.
When this situation occurred, Li Sheng couldn't help but be surprised.
What happened...
The total cost has increased significantly.
Because of this situation, many farmers simply stopped farming and went directly to the industrial zones here to work. This shows how exaggerated the rise in labor prices is.
But... As things go up, things go up, and Jiangdong is a prosperous place after all.
Even though a large number of civilians were attracted, other farmers followed and rented the abandoned fields for cultivation. Generally speaking, the cultivated land is still operating at close to full capacity - there is no problem with food production.
There is no problem with food.
then……
Other problems are naturally at the level of "just that".
After all, Li Sheng had more important things to do than the wages that he couldn't force down.
In fact, industry is an emerging advanced industry at this moment, and it is almost inevitable that the income will be higher than farming. This higher income is impossible to suppress.
In other words, Li Sheng's top priority right now is, of course, finding more financial resources.