The Rise of the European Emperor

Chapter 1780 Cement Board Road

The lack of firewood fuel has also led to a new situation - Marin's briquettes are selling very well in the Netherlands. After all, briquettes are convenient and inexpensive. It just so happens that firewood in the Netherlands is more expensive, so it is better to buy briquettes from Marin.

But there was also a situation that made Marin laugh and cry - some clever Dutch fishermen actually used the honeycomb stove and honeycomb bought from Marin to cook salt at home by the sea. Then, use the boiled salt to marinate the salted fish...

Not to mention, this trick works really well! Honeycomb stoves are inherently more efficient and cost-effective. Although the pot used in the honeycomb stove is not large, the salt that is boiled is also less. However, the unsustainable cost is much cheaper than buying salt! Even, the cost is less than one-third of the market price.

So now Marin is finding that salt is a little unsaleable on the Dutch coast. After those smart fishermen by the sea bought road and briquettes, they boiled salt at home, which can make the whole family live very well.

In desperation, Marin had to control the sales of honeycomb coal in the coastal areas of the Netherlands to suppress the local private cooking salt industry. However, business was still affected. Controlling the sales of honeycomb coal is not without results, at least, it has limited the tide of local fishermen selling low-priced salt to the inland.

Originally, there was enough briquettes to supply, and many Dutch coastal fishermen simply did not go to sea to fish, and used briquettes stoves to cook salt at home every day. Then, at a price lower than the market price of salt, private salt was secretly sold to inland areas, which affected Marin's salt sales.

Marin is also decisive. In addition to the limited supply of briquettes, he also pulled Prince Philip, the ruler of the Netherlands, into the chariot. He shared the profits from selling salt in the Netherlands to Prince Philip, making him the general agent for selling salt in the Netherlands.

With the stimulation of profits, Prince Philip, who had no integrity at all, directly used his power to directly prohibit the sale of private salt. Once found, the whole family confiscated, the method is very strict and cruel!

With this greedy guy as a thug, the salt business in the Netherlands quickly stabilized. However, those coastal fishermen secretly boil salt and then marinate the fish they catch, and they can't control it. As long as people don't sell salt, they can't be held accountable. After all, this is not the unreasonable Manchu Dynasty. If the nobles want to find fault, they have to find a decent reason. As long as those fishermen don't sell their salt, Prince Philip can't do anything about them.

...

In fact, although Prince Philip is ruthless, his mind is still very clever, and he is very talented in looting money.

For example, after Marin communicated with him, he suggested that he use the name of "safety and health" to crack down on illicit salt sales, which he did and did a great job. He has since introduced a "license system" for the sale and purchase of salt in the Netherlands under his rule. However, no licenses are issued to the outside world. Because of the salt trade in the Netherlands, he acted as the general agent of Marin, monopolizing the local salt trade, and only a few powerful nobles from the Netherlands were involved. Then, a group of unscrupulous nobles gathered around all day to discuss how to loot the people...

As for the promotion of excrement collection and centralized disposal in cities in the Netherlands, Prince Philip is also actively involved. Without him, because the fine for urinating everywhere is also the interest that this greedy and unkind prince has always pursued.

As for the disposal of those collected feces,

All cities that are close to the sea and have rivers leading to the sea end up dung to Marin's Blackwater Company. For those with inconvenient transportation, they found a place to bury them outside the city, just like dealing with garbage in later generations.

However, relying on the good relationship with the Habsburg family, Marin still got the priority to cooperate in the disposal of excrement in these Dutch cities.

For large coastal cities such as Ghent, Bruges, Amsterdam and Antwerp, the excrement of these cities is naturally transported to the sea and sold to Marin to be piled up to make soil nitrate.

Prince Philip was too lazy to accumulate and manufacture soil nitrate himself, so he directly entrusted it to Marin. However, he also made a request to buy saltpeter from Marin, and Marin naturally agreed.

As for those cities in the Netherlands that do not rely on the sea and the river, Marin has no solution for the time being, but he proposed a solution-he intends to help build roads, help build roads to the sea and the rivers that connect the sea, and then, in the future After the transportation is convenient, Marin can still get the right to collect excrement in the Netherlands. After all, the Netherlands has a population of over a million and a relatively high proportion of the urban population. If you win the contract here, there are still many benefits.

While helping the Netherlands build roads, Marin began to think about directly helping build cement roads. However, when Marin helped the Habsburgs build fortifications in Switzerland before, he claimed that this stuff was rare. Going to help repair the cement road now, don't you tell the other party "I lied to you"?

Therefore, it is not enough to help build cement roads in the Netherlands. However, helping to build a cement board road can be dripping...

What is a "cement road"? In fact, the cement is first poured into a rectangular cement board similar to stone. Then, it was transported to the Netherlands to pave the way.

After the cement is poured into a cement board, it is similar to a slate, and the paved road is also similar to a slate road. However, the cost of cement board is much lower than that of slate. After all, it takes a lot of labor to grind irregular stones into rectangular slabs.

It is very simple to pour the cement into a rectangular cement board. Just mix the cement with sand and gravel, then pour it into the mold, and then compact it. After air-drying, it becomes a cement board.

This kind of material, used to pave the road, can get the same effect as the flagstone road. After all, these days, there are no trucks weighing more than ten tons, which will not expose the slightly insufficient strength of the cement board. A carriage or something, with a load of several tons at most, will not crush the cement board road.

In fact, the standard Roman avenues are paved with rectangular stones mixed with gravel. This kind of road, as long as the drainage design treatment is done on both sides, can fully resist various complex weather such as wind, rain and snow. Its function is similar to that of a stone road.

The stone road was the most advanced road in ancient times. Generally, only the interior of big cities, as well as important military and postal roads, would be paved with such advanced roads.

It should be said that whether in ancient Rome or in ancient China, the stone road is probably the highest level of road. The important roads in those big cities are basically stone roads, and the worst are also stone roads. Because only this kind of road is not afraid of muddy rain.

But the cost of stone roads is too high, so, unless some big cities and many small towns have internal streets, they are mainly stone roads. After all, it is easy to find gravel, but grinding the stones into slate is a bit too expensive. Unless you use the power of the empire, you can have the luxury of paving the road with slate.

The roads paved with slate are often the most important official avenues of the empire, as well as traffic arteries with great military value. Like the standard main road in Roman Avenue, it is often made of stone slabs and paved at any time.

But medieval Europe was much poorer than in the Roman Empire, and it was difficult to pave stone roads. Therefore, the roads in many cities are mostly paved with stones or cobblestones that can be picked up everywhere. Its effect is worse than that of stone roads, but it is indeed much stronger than ordinary roads. Most importantly, gravel roads and cobblestone roads are low cost...

You must know how much it will cost to excavate the stone from the deep mountains, and dispatch a mason to grind it into a flat stone slab suitable for paving, and then transport it to the construction area. Therefore, if it is not a last resort, most countries are not very willing to build stone roads.

But the concrete road that Marin built, without the damage of heavy trucks, can be completely comparable to the stone road. But how many times less is the cost? After all, pouring cement into a square cement slab is several times easier than grinding stones into a square slab?

Marin intends to help the Netherlands build a few cement boards to show the superiority of cement boards to European countries. Then, the cement boards are marketed to other countries. Selling at a lower price than slate will definitely get a lot of big business. After all, in this backward age, the demand for roads is huge.

After all, everyone in China in later generations knows that "if you want to be rich, you must build roads first". The ancients were not so smart, but they understood this.

I really don't understand, Marin can also take advantage of the opportunity to help build roads in the Netherlands to show the superiority of roads built with cement boards to other countries. At that time, are you afraid that there will be no orders?

And, selling cement boards, Marin isn't worried about leaks. Others didn't understand the principle of cement, so Marin said it was a special kind of stone. At that time, the asking price is lower than that of ordinary slate, and there is no need to worry about no sales.

In fact, in the junior high school in later generations, the campus was covered with square cement boards. This kind of road, of course, is not a complete cement road, and the vehicle is not so stable on it. However, compared to the road of this era, it is much stronger.

Moreover, the construction of the cement board road is very simple. As long as the square cement slab is poured in the production base, and then directly transported to the construction site where the foundation has been laid and the subgrade has been pressed, it can be directly paved, which is more convenient than building a cement road. After all, building a cement road will not open until the road is dry and hard, and it will take many days to pass. Unless, it is the kind of fast-drying special cement specially used for repairing roads. Otherwise, ordinary Portland cement will take many days to pass.

The cement board road is relatively simple. After the cement board is laid, you can walk together in a day or two, which is extremely convenient. Marin felt that if he did it well, he would be able to make huge profits in the future just by selling the cement slabs used for paving...