As handwritten books were expensive, only the rich, the aristocrats and the Church could employ scribes. The scribes wrote only for aristocratic circles and rich monastic libraries. With the coming of the woodblock printing, merchants and traders started buying books in large numbers, with the result that booksellers could afford to hire scribes. One bookseller could employ 50 scribes due to the new technology in printing. It was no longer the monopoly of the rich and the influential.