As soon as the box under the bookcase was opened, the light inside was dim, and there was a thin layer of coins. Grete poured them out carefully, separated them according to color, and counted them one by one. After counting them once, they counted them again.
.
Ten gold coins.
Eight silver coins.
Among the gold coins, there is another one that looks particularly different.
Gretel picked it up and carefully identified it. Among the ten gold coins, nine of them showed a beautiful woman wearing a crown on the front, and roses with branches and leaves on the back. In the impression, they should be gold coins of their country. The front seemed to have the Queen's head, but what about the back?
, it is said that it should be the royal emblem.
The last one has a bearded man wearing a crown on the front, and a double-headed eagle with wings spread on the back. The emblem is different and the head is different. Considering that the backs of other silver coins also have rose patterns, it looks like
, this special-looking one should come from a foreign country?
As for how it was left behind, what its currency value was, and whether it could be spent directly, Gretel searched his memory and found nothing.
In any case, these ten gold coins and eight silver coins were the last savings left by the original body's father. They were buried under the bed and pressed under the bookcase, and he was told not to use them unless absolutely necessary.
The reason why there are gold coins and silver coins is that children who are young and weak may rashly use gold coins to spend money, which will cause trouble.
...how much will be taken out this time?
Grete thought carefully, counted eight gold coins and put them back into the box - including of course the double-headed eagle, and put back three silver coins. He carefully reset the box, cleaned up the traces on the ground, and put the money in his pocket.
Bag, rushed out of the house and rushed to the paper and pencil store.
In Hartland City, Gretel only remembers one shop that sells paper and pens. The shop is near the square in front of the city lord's palace, two hundred meters south along the street. It is considered a prime location in the entire city. There is a lot of traffic at the door, and the shop is inlaid with the family crest.
Carriages came and went, and gentlemen and ladies passed by from time to time.
Two lanterns were hung on the left and right of the shop door, and the lights illuminated half of the street. Under the lanterns, there was actually a doorman in a white shirt and overalls, holding a wooden board one foot wide and more than two meters high.
Hang Chi Hang Chi board up the shop.
When Grete came, the doorman gave him a surprised look. His eyes glanced at Grete's obviously altered linen shirt, his mud-spattered trouser legs, and his patched rucksack. He squirmed his lips, and then put down the door panel.
The past opened the door for Gretchen.
Stepping into the store, a half-person-high wooden counter divides the entire store into two parts, the inside and the outside. Sitting boredly at the counter is a young clerk in a white shirt, a black vest, and a black bow tie tied neatly under his neck, with a look on his face.
"Don't bother me, I have to get off work" with a depressed face.
There is nothing else on the outside of the counter. On the inside, in the cabinet behind the clerk, there is a dazzling array of paper rolls, quill pens, ink, stationery boxes, etc., covering the whole wall.
Gretel craned his neck to look at the scrolls. The boy raised his head and glanced at it quickly, then asked lazily:
"buy what?"
"Paper."
Gretel was interrupted after he said a word. The clerk continued casually without raising his eyes:
"Parchment paper costs two silver coins each, and white paper costs four silver coins. How much do you want to buy?"
"So expensive?!"
Grete was shocked. The parchment was worth two silver coins a piece, but that was fine. After all, it was peeled off the sheep. What did the white paper mean, four silver coins a piece?
Could this be Chengxintang paper?
No, no, no, that's not the point. If ordinary white paper is twice as expensive as parchment, how can papermaking survive and not be driven bankrupt by parchment?!
The young clerk rolled his eyes angrily. He did not answer, but folded his hands and added with his chin held high:
"The minimum selling price is ten pieces."
One sheet costs two silver coins, ten sheets equals twenty silver coins, or two gold coins... How many sheets of paper do you need to copy the entire book? Is a thousand sheets enough? If you count, this amount alone is two hundred gold coins...
…
Except for the box of alchemy equipment and surgical instruments, the house, furniture, and everything else in the family were sold out. Probably, they couldn't afford it. Grete did the math and asked with a glimmer of hope: "Is there anything cheaper?
?”
"Cheap?" The clerk raised his eyebrows. Just as he was about to say a few more words, an old man rushed out of the store:
"There are some! Which one do you want, guest?"
The old man was dressed more luxuriously than the young man. There was a velvet trim on his coat, and the buttons on his round belly were so shiny that they almost flew out. As soon as he came out, he gave the man a fierce look.
Then he put on a smile:
"The shop has all kinds of goods. The cheapest is writing paper from Waalwijk, which costs four silver coins a dollar. Whiter and smoother, official document paper from Northumberland costs one gold coin.
The white paper you just heard about, guest, is ordered by the Magic Tower outside the city all year round. It is said that it can increase the success rate when copying scrolls, and it is better than parchment. A piece of paper only costs four silver coins, so it is still cheap!"
...It turned out to be special paper for copying magic scrolls. Gretel suddenly realized: Although papermaking has been popularized, high-end paper products are not so easy to produce. Not to mention that magic paper represents real power. The top students in the previous life
Xuan, it’s not impossible to sell one knife for ten thousand or twenty thousand.
"How many sheets per knife?"
The young man curled his lips. But the old man didn't seem to think this question was too low-level at all, and still had a smile on his face:
"25 tickets, no deductions!"
emmmmm... Gretel quickly calculated silently. There are 25 cards in one knife, 4 silver coins, and a thousand cards would cost 160 silver coins - or 16 gold coins. He had a full hand and calculated, but only 10 gold coins, 8 plus 2, a total of 10 silver coins.
, take 7 copper coins with you. It will definitely not be enough to copy the complete book.
A new city guard soldier like him earns 5 silver coins a month; a squad leader earns 15 silver coins a month. A thousand pieces of paper costs 16 gold coins, which is almost as much as the squad leader's annual income - but a child
To learn to read and write, is a thousand pieces of paper a year enough?
Surely it’s not enough?
These days, reading and writing are really the privileges of only the upper class...
Grete sighed. After sighing, he continued to ask for the price:
“Can it be cheaper if I buy more?”
"One order is 20 knives, 7 gold coins and 5 silver coins! The store will deliver it to your door!"
"Where's the pen? Where's the ink?"
"Quill pen, a quill pen with 2 silver coins, can be sharpened at least 20 times! A refined quill pen with 4 silver coins, can be sharpened at least 50 times, comes with a sharpening knife! Ordinary writing ink, 2 ounces in a bottle
Silver coins, a large 5-ounce bottle, 8 silver coins!”
He really knows how to do business.
Grete smiled bitterly. This kind of differentiated pricing and tactics to attract business are so similar to the family packs, mass-market packs, and combination packs in supermarkets in previous lives?
He weighed his needs and took out his wallet:
"First buy four knives of ordinary writing paper and a refined quill. I only brought 2 gold coins and 5 silver coins, and a large bottle of ink. Can you sell me another bottle?"
Paper, pen, and ink, totaling 2 gold coins and 8 silver coins. Gretel was about to cut off 10% of the money. The young man looked on coldly, couldn't help but sneered, and coldly snorted:
"If you can't afford it, don't buy it! - Can you afford gold coins?"