The Rise of the European Emperor

For coastal residents, fish is probably the easiest meat to get. After all, the cost of fishing is very low, all you need is a boat, a net, and the labor of fishermen. Unlike meat, even grass-fed sheep, lambs cost money.

Moreover, it takes a long time to raise the sheep. Moreover, it is necessary to send someone to take care of the sheep on the way to prevent the sheep from being eaten by wild animals or stolen by people, which is very labor-intensive. Fishermen, on the other hand, don't care about the growth of fish at all. Their task is to go to the fishing area and cast nets.

Of course, fishing is also risky. For example, fear of encountering a storm at sea. However, the North Sea in Europe is relatively calm. Unlike Huaxia Nanhai, typhoons blow in summer. Therefore, as long as the boat is larger, fishing in the North Sea is relatively safe.

Fish is rich in nutrients, and it basically has all the nutrients that meat has. The only thing lacking than meat is probably fat. However, Marin has already promoted the cultivation of soybeans in North America. When soybean oil starts to be mass-produced, fat is not something that people particularly need.

All in all, things like salted fish are not only resistant to preservation, but also comprehensive and sufficient in nutrition. Moreover, because it is salted, eating salted fish is equivalent to adding salt.

Therefore, for Europeans, salted fish is really a god-level food that can provide sufficient nutrition and supplement salt, and is also durable.

Not only coastal fishermen regard salted fish as an important food, but also inland Europeans also regard salted fish as an important food. After all, salted fish is durable and easy to transport.

But the price of salt was too expensive, so the Swedes invented the notorious canned herring. The reason why it stinks is because that corner of Sweden is in the Baltic Sea area, which does not produce salt, and the price of salt is too expensive. Therefore, in order to save salt, Swedish fishermen boiled the caught fish in concentrated brine, and then packed them directly. Because of the lack of salt, the herring fermented in containers and became stinky, resulting in the infamous canned Swedish herring. And if the cost factor of salt is not considered, the correct pickling method should be to rub the inside and outside of the fish with salt until the salt penetrates into the fish. Then, air dry again. In this way, it will not be too smelly. If you try to save salt, you will make something like canned Swedish herring.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of salt in Lübeck, and there is ample supply of mineral salt from Lüneburg. The salted fish made in Lübeck has enough salt, which is very popular with consumers everywhere.

However, Marin knew in his heart that Lubeck's good days were numbered. When the herring production area moved to the North Sea coast in 1560, Lübeck was doomed to decline.

Marin used to wonder why the Hanseatic League declined in the late 16th century. It turned out that it was Lübeck, the leader, who declined. And Hamburg, the "queen" of the Hanseatic League, failed to shoulder the important task of revitalizing the Hanseatic League. Then, the Dutch took advantage of the situation and rose to replace Lübeck. Later, the trade in salt and salted fish in the Baltic region,

Looks like it was snatched by the Dutch...

...

For Shiobiki, Hector and several Bremen representatives were very satisfied, but Hector thought of a serious problem:

"Grand Duke Marin, is there a date for cashing this salt quotation? One million gold coins is not a small number. I heard that the annual salt production of the Lüneburg Salt Mine is only worth six to seven million gold coins. Even if you take With half of the shares, the annual salt production is only worth more than 300,000 gold coins, which is not enough to pay the bill. Moreover, if the delivery is delayed for one year, we will suffer a lot of losses."

Marin thought for a while, and it was true that he couldn't produce salt worth millions of gold coins all at once. So he decided:

"If the delivery is delayed, I'll just pay the interest, and I still use salt to offset the account. The old rule is that the annual interest is 10%, 5% for half a year, and no interest for less than half a year! In addition, I promise to collect enough salt within one year. But if you If I don’t come to raise the salt later, I won’t pay more interest, the maximum will be 10%!” Marin is afraid that these people will hold the salt in their hands and treat it as a stock that is about to rise. Therefore, he gave the latest cashing time. Over time, holding it for a long time is useless.

Hector thought for a while, and agreed to Marin's approach.

But in fact, Hector and other Hanseatic merchants would not value the 10% annual interest at all. Because, if the money can be cashed out and used to do business, the profit will be much higher than the interest. Therefore, Hector and several other representatives demanded that their house fees be honored first.

Marin pretended not to be happy, and Marin deliberately proposed to depreciate the houses of the Hanseatic merchants worth more than one million and only give half the price.

Several representatives of Bremen suddenly became anxious. They are all big households in Bremen, and their real estate values ​​are very high. If it is depreciated by half, the loss will be huge. For example, if Hector's villa is depreciated by half, it is equivalent to a loss of 2,500 gold coins.

So, several people began to argue hard. But Marin believes that the older the house is, the older it is, and it must be depreciated. As a result, the two sides became deadlocked.

Finally, the next morning, Hector and the others proposed a new plan——

"Master Marin, why not, let's adopt a new plan..."

"What new plan? It's impossible not to depreciate!"

Hector exhaled, and said the method discussed by several representatives of Bremen last night...

...

"What? You said you are willing to help me persuade other Hanse merchants to sell the house to me at half price?" Marin was a little dazed. He proposed to depreciate it by half, but it was just a wild asking price, waiting for the other party to counter the price. His bottom line is actually buying at a 30% discount. As a result, the opponent directly agreed to this outrageous price...

"Yes, if you, Mr. Marin, agree to purchase the properties of 23 members of the Bremen Parliament and 30 big households without depreciation, we are willing to cooperate with you and persuade other Hanseatic businessmen to accept a 50% discount!"

Marin thought for a while and asked:

"So, what is the total value of your 53 properties?"

"Probably around 200,000 gold coins. If the remaining 800,000 real estate properties are depreciated by half, you can save 400,000 gold coins!"

"Okay, done!" Marin accepted decisively.

After thinking about it, Marin asked again:

"How do you cooperate with me to persuade those little Hanseatic merchants?"

"Coax and scare!"

"Coax and scare? How to do it?" Marin became interested.

Hector replied:

"It's simple, just say we were threatened by you with a knife on the neck during the negotiation, and we had to agree to half of the depreciation..."

"Wait..." Marin interrupted him, and said angrily:

"What if those ordinary Hanseatic merchants are completely angered? What if they lead the citizens of Bremen to resist?"

Hector shook his head and said:

"No, because the food in the city won't last for many days. Besides, we councilors and big households are going to pretend to take the lead in fleeing, and spread the news that you are going to send troops to loot the Hanse merchants in the city..."

"You might as well say that I'm going to massacre the city!" Marin said angrily.

Who knew that Hector shook his head and said:

"It's useless to say that massacring the city is useless. For us businessmen, the loss of money will hurt. As for massacring the city, it may not be more deterrent than robbing them of their property."

"Hehe... businessman..." Marin didn't know what to say.

Hector continued:

"You are worried that those small merchants will encourage the citizens of Bremen to resist, so there is no need. Because, in Bremen, only more than 50 of us have the real right to speak. As for other Hanseatic merchants, there is basically nothing The opportunity to speak, don’t worry about them leading the people to fight against you. As long as more than 50 of us take the lead in fleeing, other Hanse merchants will be leaderless, and they will also flee in fright..."

"Very good, let's do it like this!" In order to save 400,000 gold coins in demolition compensation, Marin didn't care about face. As for Hector and the others, for their own benefit, they did not hesitate to betray the little Hanseatic merchants in Bremen...