? The second proposal submitted by the Senate to Shang Yi was to allow private individuals to start their own newspapers.
Since the founding of [China Times], it has become an important propaganda tool for the Nanjing government and a tool to guide public opinion. In the various battles of the Nanjing government, it mobilized the people, boosted the morale of the military and civilians, and vigorously publicized and encouraged the determination to resist the Qing Dynasty.
, also played a big role.
And now the people have gradually become accustomed to it [China Times]. Young gentry, scholar-bureaucrats, and businessmen all buy every issue to learn about the major events that happened and the various policies and measures of the Nanjing government. On the other hand,
On the one hand, [China Times] did not report all military and national affairs, but also reflected some people's livelihood and sentiment in Nanjing. By this time, [China Times]'s circulation had reached 100,000, and it basically covered this area.
Main places in China during the era.
Therefore, after seeing the huge role of newspapers, some people also had the idea of running a newspaper. However, the cost of running a newspaper was extremely high, and the sales price of the newspaper alone could not even collect half of the original copy.
In retrospect, [China Times] is because of the huge financial support of the government. In addition, Shang Yi also masters movable type printing technology and ink technology. Not only
The cost of newspapers was greatly reduced, and in order to further improve work efficiency, three steam engines were later purchased in the printing factory, which truly started mechanized production, saving a lot of manpower and time. If it were still the previous manual woodblock printing, even if
Even with a lot of money, it is impossible to issue double copies every ten days and have a circulation of 100,000 copies per issue.
It is precisely because of technical problems, mainly the lack of ink technology, that many people who have the financial resources to publish newspapers are deterred. If timely distribution cannot be guaranteed, then newspapers will have no viability.
However, at the beginning of last year, Shang Yi began to produce ink in large quantities and sell it to the public. In fact, he began to popularize movable type printing technology. After all, Shang Yi produced ink not just to publish newspapers, but also to popularize movable type printing.
technology, reduce the cost of printing books, and strengthen the dissemination of cultural knowledge. Not only at the beginning, due to various reasons, the ink formula was not announced for the time being, but now is the time.
With printing inks available, various printing workshops within the jurisdiction of the Nanjing government also began to turn to movable type printing, manufacturing various metal typefaces in large quantities. After more than a year of development, printing workshops in Jiangsu and Zhejiang also began to
The extensive use of movable type printing has also significantly reduced the price of books. In addition, the Nanjing government also has a large number of publicly issued political documents that need to be printed. Therefore, the business volume of the printing market has also increased significantly, and of course the income of various printing workshops has also increased significantly.
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At the same time, many printing workshops also took advantage of the situation to upgrade, and also purchased steam engines, introduced them into printing production, and became official printing factories. At this time, private newspapers were already ready, at least in terms of technical conditions.
However, although the people have accepted the new business of newspapers, after all, it involves government agencies. Generally, large printing factories dare not take over easily. Although some small factories and workshops dare to take over, the production scale cannot keep up.
Therefore, some congressmen were entrusted by others to issue a proposal in the Senate to open up private newspapers. This proposal was also passed in the Senate.
From Shang Yi's heart, he certainly supports private newspapers, because he comes from an era where speech is very free, and he is used to seeing multiple news media reporting on each other, and even insisting on their own opinions. Words, big quarrels.
Moreover, the role of a newspaper is limited after all. The main function of [China Times] is to be the mouthpiece of the government. It reports on major national events and government developments, but its role in reflecting society and caring for the grassroots is limited. In addition, [China Times] After all, the Times is a newspaper that reflects the main theme. It is far from adequate in terms of public opinion supervision and reflecting people's livelihood. Shang Yi is already considering running another newspaper that takes the popular line. Therefore, at this time, if there is Several private newspapers can be regarded as a supplement to the "China Times" and also open up the freedom of speech among the people. This preparation was already in place when Shang Yi publicly sold ink.
But what Shang Yi didn't expect was that several cabinet members were not as enthusiastic about private newspapers as Shang Yi. Li Yan suggested to Shang Yi that if private newspapers were allowed to be published, they would probably slander the court. I would like to say that if someone with ulterior motives takes advantage of this attempt to deceive people, the consequences may be very serious, so I ask Shang Yi to think again.
Wang Fuzhi, Du Yinxi and Li Gefei basically agreed with Li Yan's attitude and advised Shang Yi to consider this matter carefully.
This result was somewhat beyond Shang Yi's expectation. Normally, the person who should oppose him the most should be himself, but after thinking about it carefully, Shang Yi realized that this is a question of the right to speak, because now the Nanjing government has Officials have all seen the role of newspapers and their huge power to guide public opinion. However, in the Ming Dynasty, the real headache for cabinet ministers was not the eunuchs or the royal guards, because most of the time, eunuchs and royal guards were The emperor checks and balances the forces in the DPRK mainly through the cabinet, but he will never let the three parties get into conflict, so there is a default balance between them.
The real headache for cabinet ministers is the censors, the so-called Qingliu. Although these people do not have high official positions and do not have much power, their only power is to impeach hundreds of officials. If they do not punish the crime, they have unlimited power to curse and fire. .So most of the time, this group of people are like mad dogs, biting everyone they meet, and scolding them for everything, good or bad. If they make a mistake, it will be even more serious, and they can be punished. When you go online, you get slapped with big hats. And after you scold someone, you still look upright and solemn. So what if you scold you.
Although Yan Guan did defeat some corrupt and treacherous ministers, the destructive power should not be underestimated. Many ministers who were originally upright were angered by Yan Guan because of some minor mistakes. Moreover, many correct things and correct policies were In the end, they were all disrupted by these so-called Qingliu. In the late Ming Dynasty, the Donglin Party of the Hongguang Court of the Southern Ming Dynasty was a typical representative in this regard. According to one historical evaluation, the Ming Dynasty actually died due to the Qingliu or Donglin.
Therefore, several cabinet ministers are worried. After all, this is different from the Senate. The Senate is now bound by the meeting standard system and cannot cause much trouble. Even if the country is officially established and the Senate is upgraded to the National Assembly, it will only make legislative decisions. The cabinet is in charge of administration, each taking care of its own business, and no one can interfere with anyone else. Once the private sector is allowed to publish newspapers publicly, it is equivalent to giving Qingliu a voice, and then they have the opportunity to guide public opinion and interfere with government policies and resolutions. Accusing, persisting in discussions, or just verbally criticizing, swearing without using a single curse word. As Shang Yi is the emperor, of course he doesn't care, but the cabinet is often the first to bear the brunt. Of course, no one wants to foster a group of hostile forces for themselves.
If these cabinet members were still ordinary people now, they might join the Qingliu Party, and they would definitely support private newspapers with both hands. But now they are all cabinet members, and the issues they consider and their positions are Of course it's different.
Thinking of this, Shang Yi couldn't help but laugh bitterly. To put it bluntly, the butt determines the brain. However, this was also because several people were frightened by the Qingliu of the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time they did not understand the function of newspapers.
In fact, in another time and space, it was normal for newspapers to criticize the government, criticize national policies, and even accuse certain officials. In a positive sense, this approach did indeed exert considerable public opinion supervision. Of course, it does not exclude the fact that some newspapers are used as weapons by some political forces. They are purely malicious attacks, opposition for the sake of opposition, and even promote some extreme and wrong remarks. But newspapers are not unique to one newspaper. All newspapers are used as weapons. All political forces have their own flagship newspapers, or in other words, all newspapers also have their own political stances. Some are facing the light and others are facing the fire. At worst, everyone will start to argue. No one can criticize anyone anyway. After a period of commotion, It will stop and move on to the next hot topic. Unless it is an extremely corrupt and backward government, all newspapers can speak with one voice and express dissatisfaction with the government.
Moreover, the vitality of a newspaper lies in the authenticity, detail and timeliness of its reporting content, as well as the pertinence and insight of its comments, which can truly allow people who read the newspaper to understand the truth of the matter and the hidden inside story, to curse people, to make random remarks, and to act pretentious. Surprisingly, creating gimmicks can attract attention in the short term, but it cannot last long. If there is no real foundation, a newspaper will have no value in existence.
In addition, although it is said to be freedom of speech, freedom is not unlimited. You can say whatever you want. At least you cannot promote violent reaction, make lies, maliciously curse people, etc. Therefore, there are still many rules and regulations.
After listening to Shang Yi's explanation, several cabinet ministers also understood. To put it simply, Qingliu can run Qingliu's newspaper, the government can run government-fu's newspaper, and everyone can argue over the newspaper. Of course, it is better than being in the government. There are quarrels in the court, and in this regard, the government obviously has a much better advantage than the private sector. Think about it, the circulation of [China Times] has reached 100,000 copies, and it will take a lot for private newspapers to reach this number. Moreover, in terms of timely information and detailed inside information, government newspapers also have advantages over private newspapers.
In fact, several cabinet ministers also know that if newspapers are like the Senate, under the constraints of a truly effective set of institutional norms, they can indeed play a great role in using public opinion to supervise the administration of the government and the behavior of officials. Standards reflect people's life and allow the government to understand the situation at the grassroots level and the public opinion is indeed much better than in the past. At the same time, I am full of confidence in Shang Yi and believe that he will be able to formulate a truly effective system and norms.
Two days ago, I accidentally banned myself in the book review area. After upgrading the book review management, I don't know where to restore it. I later asked my consultant to fix it. I would like to express my gratitude to the consultant, Lingxing Xiaoyu.