The Rise of the European Emperor

Once the initiative to replace the original farmland, weeds and forests with alfalfa meadows in the Netherlands is completed, the nobles will of course be able to make money by raising sheep in the future. However, after the forest was cut down, the shipbuilding industry in the Netherlands was even more hopeless...

After all, Marin is still guarding against the rise of the Netherlands as a seafaring power as it has in history. Therefore, it is Marin's unremitting goal to do everything possible to destroy the shipbuilding and shipping industries in the Netherlands.

Before, Marin had used various means to transform Amsterdam, which had more than a dozen shipyards, into a famous furniture manufacturing center in Europe. But Marin still thinks it is not enough, because as long as there are so many trees in the Netherlands, there may be businessmen who will build shipyards.

Now, by encouraging the nobles of the Netherlands to enclose the land and let them transform all the land, including the forest, into alfalfa meadows, Marin can let the Dutch cut down the oak trees themselves. When they lose their oak, how will they build ships to compete with the North Sea?

This is much stronger than transforming Amsterdam into a city of furniture. Marin can destroy Amsterdam's shipbuilding industry by making furniture, but he can't stop the shipbuilding ideas in the entire Netherlands. Without Amsterdam, there are ports such as Antwerp, and the shipbuilding industry must be developed.

But the premise of building a ship in the Netherlands is that they have enough shipbuilding timber...

Of course, the Dutch can also import timber from overseas to build ships. As in the original history, the Dutch can import timber from Norway and southern Sweden, and then transport it back to the country for shipbuilding.

But that's a later thing. If you want to develop your country's shipbuilding industry in the early stage, you must rely on local timber. Only when the scale increases, will it consider importing timber from abroad to build ships. Otherwise, if there is no shipbuilding foundation, it is better to buy ships directly from abroad.

And Marin used the method of bewitching the nobles of the Netherlands to enclose the land, and quietly let the Netherlands cut down all the oak trees in the country. This is the real ruthless move. Without the supply of oak, still develop a ghostly shipbuilding industry?

Prince Philip and several Dutch nobles were not aware of Marin's sinister intentions. At this time, they were completely immersed in the beautiful "money scene" that Marin described to them as "an annual income of hundreds of thousands or even millions of gold coins". went. For them, nothing is more important than making money...

In recent years, the economy of the Netherlands has been hit hard by the British restrictions on wool exports. Right now, Prince Philip and the nobles of the Netherlands are having a hard time. At most, their income is a little better than those nobles who purely farm. After all, the wool spinning industry in Flanders has not completely collapsed yet. However, it is not far from collapse.

But the suggestion Marin gave them to raise sheep in enclosures really gave them great hope. In particular, they were willing to give them 100,000 British sheep.

In other countries, even raising sheep in enclosures may not be able to make huge profits. After all, if you produce a lot of wool, you may encounter price pressure from buyers.

But the Netherlands is different. Flanders here is the top wool spinning center in Europe. If you don't have enough wool, you don't have to worry about the sale of wool. The premise is that the wool quality is better.

Therefore, Marin is willing to provide 100,000 British sheep, which means a lot to them. Once the Netherlands can produce high-quality British wool on a large scale, it will soon become a wool spinning country integrating production and sales, and its competitiveness will never be inferior to that of England.

Moreover, for a small country like the Netherlands, the transformation is relatively simple. Like the land enclosure movement in Britain, it produced huge social turmoil. During the period of Henry VIII, England was in chaos for the purpose of enclosing land. In order to control the refugees, Henry VIII sacrificed the butcher knife many times to kill the landless peasants who refused to obey the arrangement. Thanks to England's isolation overseas, it is difficult for other countries to interfere. Otherwise, if it were a mainland country, there would be hundreds of thousands of landless peasants in the country, which would be enough to trigger riots that swept across the country. Because, even if you want to control, your neighbors will also secretly intervene.

Only an island country like England is isolated overseas, and it is difficult for other countries to intervene in their domestic affairs.

This allowed Henry VIII to concentrate on suppressing domestic chaos.

The Netherlands is different. The Netherlands is only a small place of tens of thousands of square kilometers, which is easier to manage. Although there are many farmers, if they lose their land, it is indeed easy to cause riots. However, with Marin's help to help them absorb all the landless farmers who may cause riots, then they can safely complete the enclosure. At that time, the families of the nobles of the Netherlands will be able to rely on enclosures to raise sheep and obtain huge benefits. And those aristocrats who own wool spinning factories can get more benefits through wool processing...

...

It's just that they didn't know that Marin had secretly prepared soft and finer high-quality North Sea wool suitable for wool spinning produced by better Beihai sheep.

In addition, Marin also started to engage in spinning jenny and flying shuttle, preparing for the industrial revolution. The spinning speed of the spinning jenny is 8 times that of the ordinary hand-operated spinning machine, and the efficiency of the weaving shuttle is more than 2 times that of the ordinary loom...

Combining the two together with better North Sea sheep wool, what if the Netherlands can produce its own British wool? I still have to be suppressed by the woolen textile industry of Beihai in the future...

Right now, the Beihai Kingdom's spinning jenny machine has been produced. After all, this principle is the simplest, just turn down the hand spinning machine and put 8 spindles side by side.

The weaving shuttle is more troublesome. Marin has seen the pattern of the shuttle in his previous life, and soon let the craftsman make the shuttle. However, how to install the flying shuttle on the loom, and let the flying shuttle automatically move back and forth under the traction of a rope has become a problem. To this end, Marin arranged for a group of watchmakers and loom craftsmen to study this issue together. As long as this problem is solved, the speed of the loom can be more than doubled immediately...

At that time, with better wool and higher production efficiency, how can the Netherlands compare? In the end, they also had to cut prices, reducing profits. Otherwise, there will be no competition...

...

In fact, Marin still has a bigger killer in his hands - the best merino wool produced by authentic merino sheep!

In Laayoune, a small African desert oasis, Marin’s Laayoune Governor’s Mansion used controlled Berber slaves to raise 10,000 authentic Merino sheep!

This is the offspring of one hundred pairs of merino sheep that Marin exchanged with the Spanish double kings on the Indian route. At present, it has grown to tens of thousands.

In fact, if the merino sheep were allowed to breed freely, there would be more than that. The reason why there are only 10,000 merino sheep is that Laayoune Governor Cotton pointed out in the report that Laayoune is a small oasis on the edge of the Sahara Desert, and raising 10,000 merino sheep here is already the limit. If there are more, it will destroy the local grassland and trigger the environmental crisis that Marin said.

As a last resort, thousands of merinos have been slaughtered and raised in Laayoune, because they are worried that the local grassland will shrink and the environment will be seriously damaged.

However, the authentic Merino sheep could not adapt to the environment when they were transported to the American colonies. As for transporting it back to the mainland... At the beginning, Marin vowed never to bring the Merino sheep back to Europe to raise them, and the cold and humid climate in Beihai is not suitable for the growth of Merino sheep.

Speaking of which, the ones that can adapt to the growth of Merino sheep are probably North Africa, West Asia, the inland plateau of South Africa, or dry and warm places like Australia.

Don't think about North Africa and West Asia, Marin's hand can't reach there for the time being. South Africa is not good either, it is still the territory of the Portuguese, and Marin is not easy to break the rules.

After much deliberation, probably only Australia, the most suitable place for Merino sheep to grow in future generations, can let Marin graze. After all, Australia is not within the colonial scope of any country.

In fact, in the original "Treaty of Tordesillas" signed by Spain and Portugal, according to the division method of "Pope Meridian", Australia should be regarded as the Portuguese sphere of influence.

But later, under the impetus of Marin, Spain and Portugal, including Marin, redefined the scope of colonization. Portugal's sphere of influence is clearly defined as most of Africa and India, as well as regions such as West Asia, Southeast Asia, and China, and does not include the unknown Australia.

Therefore, now that Marin sends people to Australia to raise sheep, it will not infringe on Portugal's interests.

Thinking of this, Marin finally made up his mind - secretly dispatching a fleet to explore the Australian route through the Cape of Good Hope. Then, drifting along the westerly wind, I found Perth, Western Australia, and raised a group of Merino sheep in the local Swan River basin. Then, consider Perth as an important production base for Merino sheep.

Western Australia is dry and warm, which is very suitable for the survival of Merino sheep. Moreover, the Swan River Valley has far more merino sheep than the Laayoune colony can accommodate. At that time, Marin will have inexhaustible high-quality merino wool...