Although the nobles refused to use paper to write in order to prevent knowledge from being spread on a large scale, this method was only temporary. As paper spread more and more widely, more and more areas used this paper, and eventually, some people would use paper to write.
After all, not all scholars were nobles. For merchants, the emergence of paper brought them great convenience. These merchants would not refuse to use paper to control the flow of knowledge like the nobles. They were more concerned about profits.
As long as the price of parchment books remained high, there would be merchants who would use paper to copy and sell it at a slightly lower price. Don't think that these merchants would not dare. As long as there was enough profit, there was nothing that merchants would not sell. As long as there was money, they would even sell the ropes used to hang them. Not to mention books.
The nobles' idea of blocking knowledge would only last for a while. Then, they would find that the number of paper books on the market had become a disaster.
How high was the cost of making a parchment book? In this era, parchment was made from lambskin. A complete parchment was a small lamb. It was not easy to make a parchment. Not all kinds of lambskin could be made into parchment.
Craftsmen would choose lambs of suitable age to make parchment. Generally, lambs were two to three years old. At the same time, they would observe the color of their fur. From experience, they knew that if the fur was pure white, the parchment would also be pure white.
And if one wanted to make paper with a pleasing dark pattern, one would have to choose fur with stripes. In order to ensure the perfection of the paper, they also had to carefully check whether there were scars left by diseases or parasites.
Generally speaking, only one out of five pieces of sheepskin would be suitable.
To make parchment, the first step was to soak the parchment in clean water. At the same time, the hair on the parchment had to be removed. Lime powder and other things needed to be added. This process usually took three to ten days.
After washing, the parchment had to be stretched on a wooden board. At the same time, the hair on the parchment had to be shaved with a knife. After a series of steps, the parchment was considered complete.
The price of such a piece of parchment was at least one Kinnar. A book made entirely of parchment could cost up to a hundred Kinnar. Moreover, such parchment books were thick and heavy, but they did not record as much content as paper books. It was only a matter of time before they were replaced by paper.
But so far, no businessman had done that. Perhaps someone had already done it secretly, but Suhlen didn't know about it yet.
Most of the activities in the Northwind Principality had come to a halt during the winter. The snowstorm in the Northern Wastelands was very cold. Traveling through the wastelands at this time was basically suicide. The hungry monsters in the wastelands were on the verge of going crazy from hunger. They were more dangerous than ever.
During this period of time, the Northwind Principality's trade was basically suspended. Every year, there would be about two months of snow and wind.
Therefore, during the winter, the Beifeng Duchy would cancel most outdoor work during this period of time. The people who didn't need to work would either go to the taverns to drink, go to the training grounds, or stay at home to make babies. Therefore, every winter in Beifeng Principality was an opportunity for its population to explode.
Under normal circumstances, around August next year, the Northwind Principality would usher in a baby boom. Although the snowstorm had interrupted the Northwind Principality's trade for two months, and although it had lost a lot of income, it had also gained an opportunity for population growth.
However, during this winter, although the other cities in the Northwind Principality had canceled outdoor work, the Northtown City did not. The design of the floating city had been completed, and all kinds of renovation work were being carried out in an orderly manner. Therefore, the renovation work in the inner city of the Northtown City was not interrupted.
Although the Northtown City was in the north, under the effect of the Harvest Altar, the city wasn't very cold. The renovation work could continue.
In the inner city of the Northtown City, after a few months, the various factories that were originally in the inner city had all been moved out. For these factories, Suhlen deliberately isolated an area in the outer city, where all the factories were located.
The palace, which originally occupied the largest area in Suhlen, had also been moved to the outer city. The floating city's area was limited, so Suhlen had decided to live in the Northwind Tower. The land that was saved would be used to build other buildings.
The first phase of the renovation of the floating city was progressing smoothly. The first phase of the renovation was more focused on the underground. Here, the underground network of the floating city would be laid out.
The energy of the Elemental Furnace could enter all parts of the floating city through the underground network. By then, it would basically become a magic city.
In the Northtown City, there were actually a lot of very good magic props, but it was still at the level of medieval civilization. For example, the magic lamp, which had been widely used as early as the era of the Arcane Empire, but until now, the magic lamp was only used inside the major Wizard organizations and Wizard Towers.
In addition to the price, there was also the energy needed for the magic lamp. Compared with the electricity in his previous life, the magic energy in this world was more violent and more difficult to control. In addition, stable and continuous energy was not easy to obtain.
However, with the Elemental Furnace, the energy problem of the Northtown City was temporarily solved. After laying out the underground network, Suhlen could even build rows of street lamps in the inner city. In his blueprint, the inner city of the Elemental Pool was more advanced than in his previous life. After all, many times, magic could do things that couldn't be done by technology in his previous life.
Magic energy couldn't be used without restraint. Detailed planning must be done before use. No flaws were allowed in the underground network. It was a very large project. Suhlen and Hathaway did a cost calculation. It would cost about 10 to 20 million Kinnar to complete it.
Fortunately, Suhlen had been making money in various ways. He had obtained hundreds of millions of Kinnar from the southern pirates, and this time, he had made a lot of money in the west of the continent. All of these together were basically enough to cover the cost of the first phase of the floating city.
The second phase of the project required the income of the Northtown City. The income of the Northtown City was now very high. In addition to the various ore production in the underground world and the production of the secret realm, as well as some extra income that Suhlen got from time to time, the second phase of the project was estimated to be enough.
Transforming the floating city didn't require all the money at once. It was continuous, so the pressure on resources was not so tight. The second phase of the project would build a complete ecological balance system and the living system of the floating city.
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