The Rise of the European Emperor

After listening to the stories of the expedition team members, Marin took a breath. He didn't expect that just because he wanted to find a tropical fruit like pineapple, he would take the lives of 79 expedition members.

Of course, things have already happened, and there is no way to undo them. Moreover, pineapple is indeed a very useful fruit. If the pineapple is made into canned fruit, it is not only delicious, but if the crew take it with them, it can also supplement enough vitamin C to make the crew less prone to scurvy. Therefore, although 79 lives were paid, it was not worthless.

The last expedition leader handed the dried pineapple sample to Marin. After seeing it, Marin knew that it was indeed a pineapple. As for fresh pineapple? The time from Grenada to the mainland is too long to be preserved. Therefore, it can only be dried in the sun and brought back. The expedition team traveled from the Amazon River Basin to Grenada Island, because the time was not long, but the pineapple seeds they carried did not break down.

In addition, the expedition team also brought several large bags of rubber tree seeds, which can also be used to sow a large area to provide convenience for future rubber tapping.

Seeing the miserable appearance of a group of surviving expedition members, Marin suddenly had an idea, and said to Rudolph, the last expedition leader:

"You guys, write the experience of the past few years into a book. I have already thought of the title for you, and it is called "Straight Out of the Amazon"! Then, I will find a way to publish this book across Europe, and the proceeds The profits will be distributed to you and the families of the 79 expedition members who died..."

Marin suddenly felt that the narration by Rudolph and others was very exciting and thrilling. Moreover, probably because of personal experience, what they told was more detailed and exciting than the "Wild Diary" that I made up a few years ago to scare Europeans from robbing America with me.

It would be more fascinating if their experiences were written into a book. Moreover, it is more intimidating. After all, no one came forward to speak out about the "Wild Diary" a few years ago, so the credibility is not high.

But Rudolph and other 21 survivors can see their misery standing there, which is very convincing. If the writing is finished, let these 21 people follow them to book signings and road shows in major cities in Europe, the effect is estimated to explode.

But Rudolph and others shook their heads after hearing what Marin said:

"Grand Duke, we are all illiterate, how can we write books? This will ruin your business!"

"Illiterate?" Marin chuckled—is this a problem?

You must know that in later generations, there is a literary method called "reportage". Reportage is a literary mode between news reporting and fiction. It not only includes the authenticity of news reports, but also makes an artistic description of the real story, which is more appealing and convincing.

Marin is not worried that Rudolph and others are uneducated. He can find a few writers, interview these surviving expedition members, sort out the experiences they told, and add artistic descriptions. In this way, a book in the form of reportage can be produced - "Straight Out of the Amazon". Of course, Marin, a liberal arts student in his previous life, will also help review the manuscript, and finally finalize it for publication.

However, the purpose of Marin's help in reviewing the manuscript is not just to make the article more suitable for the needs, but that he does not want to expose information in the Americas other than the Amazon forest. This point will also be mentioned when those writers are asked to write articles. Finally, after his review. Then, the news about America in the whole book only leaves the terrifying Amazon jungle. In this way, it can also scare the monarchs and nobles of other countries who want to covet America.

...

Of course, no one knows when the profits from publishing the book will be in place. Even Marin wasn't sure if the book could make money. Therefore, he first rewarded each of the expedition team with 100 gold coins, which can be regarded as a reward for giving them life and death for several years. In addition to the 21 people alive, the families of the 79 people who died will also receive the money. As for the rest, it depends on how much the book can earn. The more you earn, the more these 100 families get.

After arranging the interview and writing of the book "Straight Out of the Amazon\

,"Marin began to pay attention to the cultivation of pineapples.

"After the people in Grenada cultivate the first batch of pineapples, the second batch of seedlings will be sent to Cuba for cultivation and planting!" Marin arranged.

After all, the island of Grenada is too small, and there are many mountains. Only large islands like Cuba are suitable for large-scale planting of pineapples.

After large-scale planting, it is also conducive to the establishment of a canning factory on the island of Cuba, which can process the received pineapples into canned pineapples on the spot, and then transport them back to the North Sea country for local consumption.

Then, captains and sailors on ocean voyages can also distribute some canned pineapples to them. Canned pineapple is easy to preserve, and it is sweet and sour, and tastes very good. In addition, its vitamin C content is 5 times that of apples, and it is an ideal vitamin C supplement for voyagers. Moreover, the juice of canned pineapple can also be used as a fresh water supplement during the voyage, saving fresh water consumption.

Of course, Marin couldn't afford to let every sailor eat every day. Therefore, probably only senior crew members such as the captain and first mate can eat it frequently. As for ordinary sailors, it must be rare to eat it once, and it should be regarded as improving their lives.

Speaking of which, the current island of Cuba has been regarded as a fruit base by Marin. Bananas, sugar cane, and coconuts are all grown on a large scale in Cuba. Now, with the addition of pineapples, another large variety has been added.

Marin suddenly remembered that it seemed that the four legendary tropical fruits in later generations were bananas, pineapples, lychees and mangoes.

Lychee Marin seems to have forgotten to import it from Daming, but this thing is easy to handle, just order Kong Tai to go to Guangdong to import it. As for the mango, it seems to be native to India, but it seems to have been introduced to China. Well, Kong Tai can also be introduced... By then, the four major tropical fruits will be complete. Made into cans, the people of Beihai can also enjoy the tropical fruits loved by the world.

Perhaps, you can also learn from Malaysia, squeeze the lychee juice and make it into a drink to quench your thirst in summer. This is not a drink with flavors and flavors that later generations will drink, but a real fruit juice. As long as it is packaged in a can, it can be stored for a long time.

However, it is estimated that a lot of glass bottles and corks are required to produce fruit juice drinks. According to the most classical canning processing method, the canned food or fruit juice is put into a steamer for high-temperature distillation, then the cork is quickly plugged, and then the contact part between the cork and the bottle mouth is painted with beeswax to ensure air-tightness.

That would require a lot of glass bottles, corks and beeswax...

The glass bottle is okay, big deal, Marin can build a glass factory on the island of Cuba to produce glass bottles to reduce the transportation cost of glass bottles.

Sources of cork and beeswax though...

It’s okay to say beeswax, but it’s a big deal to strongly encourage beekeeping. Marin remembered that most of the seals raised by later generations were Italian bees. Therefore, go to Italy to find bee varieties and promote them.

But cork... This thing is mainly produced in Portugal. The worst thing is that it seems that the cork tree takes 25 years from planting to harvesting cork! For such a long time, Marin is old...

"Hey - no, I really want to have natural rubber!" Marin slapped his head suddenly, remembering that he still has such a thing as natural rubber...

Unlike some synthetic rubbers, natural rubber has a strange smell and is not poisonous. It can completely replace cork as a bottle stopper.

Although the production of natural rubber in Cuba is not large at present, a batch of rubber seeds can be planted, and rubber can be tapped again in a few years. At least, it's better to wait than the 25 years of the crappy cork tree...

In this way, the future plan of Cuba as a production base for canned tropical fruits and tropical fruit juices was determined by Marin. Later, when people mentioned Cuba, they thought of delicious canned fruit and delicious juice drinks. Just hearing the name "Cuba" makes me feel a little thirsty...