The Rise of the European Emperor

In fact, Marin was full of evil thoughts at this time, and planned to expel those Hanseatic merchants from Bremen without paying any money. In this way, at least one million gold coins can be left. However, after thinking about it, he still endured it.

If he only felt at ease as a vassal in a corner, it would be understandable to do so. However, what Marin wanted was half of Germany, learning from the Prussian line of later generations. Therefore, he can't be too ugly when he eats. Otherwise, if a bad example is set, no one will believe him in the future.

In addition, at this time, Marin still needs the political support and economic cooperation of the Hanseatic League, and cannot easily turn against others. What city is Bremen? That's the third child of the Hanseatic League! The boss Lubeck and the second Hamburg can agree to Marin moving it, which is already good. If you go too far, you will lose the ally of the Hanseatic League in the future. In Germany, it is difficult to mix without allies.

Moreover, if these Bremen businessmen went to Hamburg and Lübeck, because of their strong financial resources, they would definitely mix with the high-level officials of the two cities in the future. Now it's a good time to forcibly drive them away. In the future, they will mix in with the high-level officials in Lübeck and Hamburg, and they will definitely give themselves small shoes to wear. Therefore, Marin forcibly suppressed his evil thoughts and chose to resolve it peacefully. Only by resolving the matter peacefully will good relations with the Hanseatic League be guaranteed. At the same time, it also sets an example for conquering other regions and cities in the future - brother is a reasonable person...

However, if he really paid millions of gold coins in real money, Marin would not be reconciled. After all, that was millions of gold coins. Even if Marin has strong financial resources, it hurts to take it out.

As for paying for food, Marin had thought about it. However, unfortunately, because of this year's war, the Beihai country suffered a large-scale grain harvest failure. Especially Oldenburg, who was personally ordered by Marin to burn the wheat fields, and the losses were extremely heavy. In addition, Marin now needs a lot of grain for wine making every year, so even if there is a lot of grain in the warehouse, Marin is not very willing to pay with grain. You know, in this chaotic era, food is sometimes stronger than gold coins.

Therefore, Marin hesitated...

At the reception banquet in the evening, Malin specially held a grand welcome ceremony, mainly welcoming the two great speakers of Lübeck and Hamburg. At the beginning of the dinner, the beautiful waiter Maomei brought bread and salt representing the highest welcome etiquette.

Sending bread and salt is actually the etiquette of the Slavs. After the Maomeis were introduced by Marin, they also brought this custom. Marin found it very interesting, so he chose the repertoire of the welcome banquet. Otherwise, according to the habits of the Germans, it is estimated that there will be a plate of sausages, or two big elbows.

The habits of the Germans are more practical, but it seems a bit discordant. After all, for sausages, not to mention pig intestines, most of the meat used is smashed. In this era, guests from other countries may not be able to adapt. If two big knuckles were served, it might frighten the guests. Therefore, Marin introduced the etiquette of "bread and salt" of the Slavs. After all, bread and salt looked much cleaner and more elegant. And, crucially,

The hairy girl holding bread and salt is very eye-catching...

The two Great Speakers are no strangers to this kind of Slav etiquette, because both cities have close trade relations with the Baltic Slavs, so they are naturally aware of this etiquette. So they naturally picked up a small piece of bread, dipped it in some salt, and took a bite.

Then, Heinrich, the Speaker of the Lübeck Congress, praised:

"Well, yes, better than Lüneburg salt!"

Heinrich himself was a big salt merchant in Lübeck. Their family's business mainly transported Lüneburg's mineral salt to the Baltic Sea region for sale through the Stecknitz Canal. The profit of this business is very high, so Heinrich's family is also a wealthy Lübeck, and has long occupied the seats in the Lübeck Parliament.

Heinrich's words were unintentional, but in Marin's ears, they were like thunder—yes, the salt of Lüneburg!

Marlin suddenly became excited...

During this period of time, he was so busy that he almost forgot about the disposal of the salt mine in Lüneburg he had acquired.

Dealing with the Lüneburg Salt Mine is the same as dealing with the Hanseatic merchants in Bremen, the original salt merchants, and needs to be treated differently. For example, the salt merchants from Lübeck and Hamburg cannot move their shares. Marin naturally swallowed the share that originally belonged to the Welf family where the Duke of Lüneburg belonged.

However, due to the short-sightedness of the former Duke of Lüneburg, the Welf family only owned one-third of the salt mine. The remaining two-thirds of the share were either sold by the former Duke of Lüneburg, or divided among other nobles in the Principality.

Fortunately, Marin violently cleaned up the Welf family this time, and incidentally annexed the original nobles in the Principality of Brunswick-Lüneburg. After all, in this war, the original nobles in the Principality of Brunswick-Lüneburg must have participated in the war. Since he participated in the war, he must be considered a loser. As a loser, it is only right and proper to be robbed of the shares of the salt mine.

In this way, Marin also got nearly half of the shares in the Lüneburg Salt Mine. The Lüneburg Salt Mine produces more than 10,000 tons of salt per year. According to the wholesale price of 4 shillings per quarter (12.7 kilograms), each ton of salt is worth 315 shillings, equivalent to 63 gold coins. In this way, the annual output value of the salt mine shares in Marin's hands is as high as 315,000 gold coins.

However, Marin's ambition is obviously more than that. As a ruler, he is not satisfied with only occupying half of the salt mines. In the future, Marin intends to kick off most of the mine owners after the situation stabilizes, and monopolize most of the benefits for himself. After all, in this era, salt is a hard currency that can stand alongside gold coins and food. How can Marin allow others to get involved in such strategic resources?

Of course, there are still some mine owners with great backgrounds, and Marin is not easy to move them. Therefore, Marin's ultimate goal is to occupy 80% of the shares in the Lüneburg Salt Mine. So, but the salt mine can bring him an output value of 500,000 gold coins every year. As for the profit, it should reach 400,000 gold coins.

Moreover, it seems that the production capacity of the salt mine in Lüneburg has not yet been fully tapped. Marin had read European history before, and an article said that the Lüneburg Salt Mine had an annual output of more than 20,000 tons at its peak in the 16th century. In other words, Marin can completely double the salt production.

But Marin didn't intend to really increase production so much, because he just planned to use the Lüneburg Salt Mine as a cover...

His salt cooking base on Cape Breton Island has no lower salt output than the Lüneburg Salt Mine. Also, the quality is better. However, because it is difficult to explain the source, Marin can only control the salt production now. Although it has managed some sales in Eastern Europe, it has never dared to enter the German salt market for fear of attracting suspicion.

But it is different with the Lüneburg Salt Mine. With the cover of the Lüneburg Salt Mine, Marin can pretend to expand the production scale of the salt mine. But really, it's just scaling up Cape Breton Island boil salt. Then, in the name of Lüneburg mine salt, table salt was dumped to the German states.

...

Of course, that's all for later. Right now, the first thing Marin has to solve is the problem of buying the real estate of the Hanseatic merchants in Bremen. Since you don't want to pay with cash or food, paying with salt is also a good choice...

Therefore, Marin said to Hector and other representatives of Bremen:

"I agree to spend money to buy your real estate in Bremen, but I plan to pay with salt!"

...