从成本角度看明清时期的活字印刷

Analyzing Movable-type Printing during the Ming and Qing Dynasties from the Perspective of Cost

明清时期,活字印刷处于一个传统的发展时期,比唐宋时期有所进步,又没有受到民国时期西方印刷术的刺激,最能代表古代活字印刷的水平。本文以印刷的各个环节为线索,分析了活字印刷的具体生产成本、售价和出版种类,并将之与雕版印刷作对比,得出活字印刷工序复杂,初始成本较高,对出版人的资金和技术要求较高,不适合印刷主流出版物,因此和雕版印刷相比不易推广而发展缓慢的结论。

From the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty,movable-type printing was in a traditional development period,which could represent the most typical level of ancient China.This article uses links of printing as a clue to analyze movable-type printing's cost price and publiation types.Then the conclusions can be drew that movable-type printing has delicate operation process,expensive costs and higher requirement to the publisher's capital and technology,which result in difficult extension and slow pace in development compared with woodblock printing.