The Rise of the European Emperor

The trade of ironware is an important trade item for Marin and the princes this time, but it is not the most important. The most important thing is the salt trade. After all, Marin occupies the territory of the North Sea, and knows how to cook salt with briquettes and firewood-saving stoves. With the support of coal in the Ruhr area, Marin's boiled salt production is abundant.

In addition, Lüneburg, an important salt mining area in Germany, was also annexed by Marin. Therefore, if the princes want to eat salt, they really have to rely on Marin.

Of course, it doesn't mean that only Marin produces salt, and there are other forces that provide salt to the princes. For example, the Duchy of Lorraine is the salt provided by the French. After all, France is a country surrounded by the sea on three sides, and its salt production is also abundant. It's just that the French don't understand the secondary cleaning of filtering bittern and salt. Therefore, the salt of the French is a bit bitter, and the quality is incomparable with the table salt of the North Sea.

In addition, the southern vassal states also purchased sea salt from Venice. Of course, it is not necessarily produced in Venice, but resold by the Venetians. It was only necessary to cross the Alps to transport Venetian salt to Austria and then to some princely states. Because the land distance is shorter than the distance from the North Sea and the coast of France, land freight and tolls are cheaper, so there are many buyers. But there is still the same problem - there is no step of removing the bittern and washing the salt, the taste is more bitter.

The Europeans, however, had other options. The way is to use this bitter sea salt to marinate salted fish first. Then, sell the salted fish directly. People in the interior bought salted fish, which can be used as food and added salt.

Although this low-quality sea salt is bitter, the salted fish has a strong fishy smell. Bitter sea salt is used, and the bitterness and fishy smell are mixed together, but instead cover each other's taste and achieve each other, it is easier for people to accept.

This is one of the important reasons why the European salted fish trade was so popular in the Middle Ages. Bitter salt and smelly salted fish can really achieve and cover each other. Another important reason is religious issues. There are many seasons when meat is forbidden in this era, but salted fish is not considered meat and can be eaten on fasting days. Under two major reasons, the salted fish trade is very tight.

But Beihai State seems to be different, because Marin "invented" the technology of incubating chickens, ducks and geese in a kang house, which led to a very developed industry in Beihai State for raising poultry. It should be pointed out that chicken and duck are not considered red meat and can also be eaten during fasting. Its taste is much better than salted fish. Therefore, the sales of chicken, duck, goose, and eggs are very hot on the fasting date in Beihai. Who the hell would eat salted fish when given a choice? Wouldn't it be better to eat chicken?

Mainly, the fishy smell of salted fish is difficult to remove. To remove the fishy smell, expensive spices are required. Or, directly fry the meat to remove the fishy smell, but it also requires a lot of cooking oil, which is unaffordable for ordinary people. Because the fishy smell is too strong, resulting in bitter sea salt, its bitter and salty taste, on the contrary greatly reduces or disperses the influence of fishy smell.

Of course, this is the helpless choice of the poor. But the nobles are different, they naturally pursue a good quality of life. Therefore, they also like the Beihai table salt with low bitterness.

Before Marin promoted the use of the method of removing most of the brine and washing the salt again with clean water, the fine, non-bitter table salt eaten by European nobles was actually mostly mineral salt. But most of the mineral salt is actually bitter. Only a small number of high-quality salt mines produce table salt that is not bitter. And these are also covered by the nobles, and the price is relatively expensive.

At the beginning, it was the Principality of Lüneburg who controlled the supply of high-grade, non-bitter refined salt. In the salt mines of Lüneburg, although the non-bitter refined salt is only a small part, the total amount is also quite a lot. At least, it is enough to welcome the German aristocracy. Most of the bitter mine salt was sold to the people of Lübeck to marinate the herring caught from the Baltic Sea. In this way, and because of the high price of bitter Lüneburg mineral salt, the Swedes invented the notorious canned herring. The reason why canned herring smells is because the Swedes put very little salt when cooking fish, which makes the smell uncontrollable. If there is enough salt, this will not happen.

But the arrival of Marin, the traverser, broke the original pattern. Relying on methods ahead of the times, he reduced the bitterness of sea salt by more than half, resulting in almost no taste of bitterness in sea salt, comparable to high-grade refined salt. However, at that time, Marin, a stunned young man, sold this kind of "high-grade sea salt" with a low bitter taste at a very low price, which was a little higher than bitter salt.

This touched the interests and bottom line of the Duke of Lüneburg. The reason why Lüneburg formed the Eight-Nation Allied Forces to besiege the North Sea State was actually for revenge. But it is a pity that the Principality of Lüneburg was defeated and even annexed by Marin.

Before, Marin sold sea salt that was not bitter, but concealed it, pretending that it was a high-quality refined salt mine produced overseas. But now, after annexing the salt capital of Lüneburg, Marin didn't bother to use overseas salt mines as a cover-up. If you want to cover it up, "Lüneburg has discovered a new refined salt mine" is enough to deal with it.

Therefore, when negotiating the salt trade business with the hostile princes this time, Marin's banner was "Lüneburg discovered a new large-scale refined salt mine, all princes are welcome to order, and the price is favorable"...

Because Marin's confidentiality work was in place, he even put the main salt production area on Cape Breton Island in the Americas, so the princes didn't know that the so-called "refined salt" provided by the North Sea country was actually boiled from sea water. So, when they got the "Double Eleven special price" given by Marin, they didn't know that they had already been slaughtered...

No way, the cognitive gap between the two sides is too great!

According to the traditional experience in the past, the princes thought that the refined salt that was not bitter came from the essence of the salt mine. Therefore, they naturally think that salt that is not bitter should be expensive.

How did they know that as long as they know a little chemical knowledge, they can make sea salt less bitter. The hundreds of years of knowledge and cognition gap is not just a joke.

Even, many princes are still laughing at Marin for selling "gold" for the price of cabbage. How would they know that this almost non-bitter table salt is sea salt, and the cost is the price of cabbage...

Fortunately, Marin's salt production base has always been on a remote island, and later the main production area was transferred to the Americas. Therefore, if the princes don't know the inside story, the Three Views will not be subverted.

And Marin is also a chicken thief, but after understanding the thoughts of consumers, he later decisively started coal boiled salt in Newcastle, England. Moreover, the most common technology is used, without bittern or salt washing. The quality of the table salt it produces is similar to that of ordinary salt in this era. Then, the two salts are sold together, especially to the outside world. In this way, it can show the rarity of "fine salt" that is not bitter. Its price is also higher. But in Beihai, no matter whether they are nobles or serfs, they all eat salt that is not bitter. Only when it is sold to the outside world, it will be sold together with bitter salt, so that the nobles of other countries feel that they are "superior". At the same time, it is also convenient to ask for a high price...

In addition to salt and ironware, the trade volume of spirits is not small. Mainly, Marin used old wheat to brew a lot of rye Erguotou before. After the liquor is brewed, it needs to be stored for a year or two, and the taste is better, and it is very durable. As long as it is above 40 degrees, liquor can be stored for many years. Therefore, Beihai now stores a lot of rye Erguotou with a temperature of 53 degrees, all of which are packed in oak barrels. When it is time to sell, the barrels are opened for further blending. For example, blended into 40% whiskey, and 20% Royal Salute. Then, it is bottled and sold.

Because of the large inventory, it can be sold and survived in the next three or four years. And three or four years later, the sweet potato planting in North America will be on a large scale. At that time, sweet potatoes will replace rye Erguotou and become the main force of Beihai's foreign baijiu sales.

As for grain sales, Marin's family didn't agree this time. Because the North Sea country is about to welcome hundreds of thousands of Ross people, and needs to reserve enough food to deal with it. But as compensation, Marin agreed to sell salted fish to vassal states that needed food. Marin now monopolizes the Newfoundland fishing grounds in his hands, and is also vigorously developing the North Sea fishing grounds, so the fishery resources in his hands are very rich. The use of trawl nets resulted in a large catch. Therefore, there is sufficient supply capacity to supply salted fish to the outside world. Moreover, the price can be given very favorable.

In fact, the army of the Beihai Kingdom no longer eats salted fish with a strong fishy smell. Instead, they choose to fry the salted fish to remove the fishy smell, grind it into powder, and mix it in biscuits to eat. In this way, sufficient protein nutrition can be obtained without the interference of fishy smell. Only for the serfs, ordinary salted fish is still being provided. The main reason is that the North Sea country currently does not have much soybean oil, so it can only give priority to supplying the nobles and the army. Serfs can only eat salted fish with a strong fishy smell first. Of course, when cooking, chefs from various manors in Beihai will add cheap and low-quality beer to remove the fishy smell. Sometimes, some ginger and vinegar are added. But ginger is a spice in Europe in this era and is expensive. The vinegar is mainly apple cider vinegar, and the price is not cheap. Therefore, the manor chefs mainly rely on beer to remove fishy smell. If it is fried with oil and some green onions are added, the effect will be better. Even, this is still a secret, and people in other countries don't know it. Because there is no technique for making fish in Chinese food, Europeans eat salted fish in this era, which is so sour... Cook or bake it directly.

In addition to the four major commodity trades of ironware, salt, liquor and salted fish, Marin also strives to sell woolen textiles to various countries in the future. It's just that the wool textile industry in Beihai has not yet developed, and it is still meeting internal needs, and it does not yet have the ability to export wool textiles on a large scale. Therefore, the agreement with the various vassal states can only be reached verbally, without actually exporting woolen textiles.

The sale of sucrose is also in its infancy. In Cuba, many new sugarcane fields have been reclaimed, but the output has not yet exploded. Most of the previous sucrose production was sold locally, and only a small amount could be sold to the outside world. After all, there are two million people in the mainland. Moreover, it is necessary to supply the army in large quantities. It is said that eating sugar can make people happy and relieve the irritability and tension of the boring life in the military camp. Moreover, it can also provide a large amount of energy. Therefore, later generations also listed sugar as a war preparation. As a soldier in Beihai, eating candy can be regarded as a very high benefit, and it is also the capital for soldiers to show off to their fellow villagers. As for the large-scale sale of sucrose, it is estimated that it will have to wait until the newly opened sugarcane fields produce a large amount of sucrose.

In addition, Marin also began to sell canned fruit to the princes in small quantities. For example, canned pineapples, canned oranges and canned yellow peaches (the seeds were brought back by Marin in the Ming Dynasty). But oranges and yellow peaches are currently planted in a small area, mainly in the Savannah colony in North America. Therefore, the current output is not high. Only the pineapple planting in Cuba has grown to a certain scale, and canned pineapple can be mass-produced.

Of course, most canned fruits are given priority to local supply. However, some can be sold in small quantities. The price, of course, is high. At least, like the later Maotai, it is hundreds of times the price of grain. Well, a few hundred pfennigs a bottle. Anyway, you have no other source of goods, so you can only listen to my bid.

...

In addition to selling goods, Marin also placed orders from various vassal states. Mainly beeswax, wooden barrels and flax, as well as some rare metal raw materials such as lead and tin ingots.

The main reason for purchasing beeswax is that there are a lot of canned food in Beihai, and a large amount of sealing wax is required. Therefore, beeswax needs to be purchased in large quantities. The mountains in southern Germany are full of flowers, which are very suitable for beekeeping and can produce a lot of beeswax.

Needless to say, wooden barrels, most of the goods transported in Europe these days are in barrels, including flour and salt. Although Marin has invested in many oak barrel production plants in the Netherlands, and even purchased oak barrels in France. However, due to the developed trade and the large volume of goods shipped, wooden barrels are still in short supply. Therefore, Marin also began to purchase wooden barrels from the German princes.

As for flax, besides making clothes, it can also make rope and sacks. Flax fiber is strong and has a much stronger tensile strength than wool. Therefore, it can be used to make twine and sacks.

Although Marin is now seeking to use sisal ropes for all the cables of ships in the North Sea, the current production of sisal is limited, which can at most meet the needs of cables immersed in seawater. The ropes that pull the sails on the boat are mainly hemp ropes. Therefore, the demand for flax is also quite large.

As for lead blocks and tin ingots, needless to say, they are indispensable for the manufacture of lead bullets and bronze, which are strategic materials. Of course, the princes of this era do not have this awareness, as long as they give money, they can buy it.

When Marin purchased materials, he did not ask the other party to discount, but purchased according to the market price. Of course, if the other party takes a fancy to some kind of material that the North Sea country sells to the outside world, they can barter it. Marin also likes barter the most, because Beihai is currently short of gold and silver. It would be great if urgently needed supplies could be exchanged for low-cost supplies such as salt, spirits, ironware, and salted fish. Anyway, the cost of these materials is actually relatively low. Even with a discount, Marin is very profitable.

Therefore, in the end, the princes who participated in the trade on both sides were very satisfied. Although political differences still exist, everyone's hostility towards the North Sea State has decreased a lot. After all, they were just political enemies in the past, and they had no interest relationship, so they could be hostile as much as they wanted. Now that he has become a trading partner, pointing at the other party to make money, the hostility will inevitably decrease a lot. At least, from eliminating it quickly, it has been downgraded to hostility and suppression...

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