The Rise of the European Emperor

The princes of a small country without the protection of the boss are helpless. Since the Imperial Council is not on his side, Otto III, the Earl of Schaumburg, can only accept the fate of the Recklinghausen area being forcibly purchased.

According to the market price, the price in the Recklinghausen area is 200,000 gold coins. However, Marin has no cash now. After all, Europe is already short of precious metals in this era. The biggest problem in Marin's North Sea country is not the lack of wealth, but the lack of currency that represents wealth. Of course, not only Marin lacks currency, but now the whole of Europe lacks gold and silver, otherwise it will not be a big voyage.

You know, European gold and silver deposits are not rich. Moreover, in trade with the Middle East and India, Europe itself cannot provide any special goods that interest the other party, and can only pay for gold and silver coins. Therefore, over the years, Europe's foreign trade has been a net outflow of gold and silver. With the large outflow of gold and silver, European countries that lacked gold and silver had to come up with the crooked idea of ​​adulterating their silver coins. Then, the silver content of European silver coins generally fell below 50%...

Also because of the lack of gold and silver, prices in Europe are now low. Of course, the low prices mentioned here are compared with the prices after the "price revolution". Compared with the Ming Dynasty or India, European prices are still very high. The reason is that European agriculture is too rubbish.

Generally speaking, money is a measure of the total wealth of a society. Although Europe is currently short of gold and silver, special food is even scarcer. That's why food prices are so expensive. And, it's fine now. After the "price revolution", food prices will double several times.

The "price revolution" happened because the Spaniards in the 16th century obtained a large amount of gold and silver in the Americas and shipped them back to Europe. However, since European agriculture is so rubbish, there is little improvement. Therefore, when the total amount of goods remains unchanged, while the supply of gold and silver has risen sharply, prices have naturally skyrocketed.

...

In fact, European grain and salt are now hard currencies. After all, silver coins are pretty valuable now. But the smallest denomination of 1 pfennig silver coin is also a large denomination for ordinary people. After all, the average person earns 2 pfennig for a day of hard labor. If the most common salary standard for small places in the future is 3,000 a month, the daily salary is 100 yuan. Well, one pfennig is equivalent to 50 bucks...

Is 50 yuan a big denomination? In later generations, there are still smaller denominations of 20, 10, 5 and 1 yuan, and there are coins of 5 cents and 1 cents down...

So, in Europe in this era, metal currencies do not fully quantify commodities. then what should we do? Barter!

As for barter, the core is probably the three main types of food, salt and cloth. Even in ancient China, where products were more abundant, grain and cloth could be counted as currency.

However, in Marin's hands, the most abundant grain is rye. As for cloth, he has relatively few hands. And salt, the market is also very good, do not worry about selling. But for rye, Marin generally does not dare to ship, for fear that the shipment will be too large, which will impact the grain price, and be suspected of having the means of high grain yield. This time, Marin was forced to be helpless, because he had spent too much money before, so he had no money in his hand, so he had to use food to pay the bill. Fortunately, occasionally, it will not attract attention.

...

And for Marin to use grain as a means of payment, Otto III did not refuse. After all, there is a shortage of food all over Europe right now, which prevents the population from rising.

The only problem was that Otto III was worried about the loss of food in transit. After all, the people who transport food also consume food.

For this question, Marin is not worried. Why? Because he dug the Münster Canal. Although the Münster Canal is not big, it is no problem to use it to transport grain ships. The cost of transporting grain by water is very low. Moreover, he said that all food losses along the way were counted on him. After all, Marin is now the least food-starved person in Europe. In East Frisland alone, Marin has built a number of huge cement-structured grain storage warehouses. Even, because of too much grain, Marin had to develop the road of brewing rye Erguotou,

Avoid grains that are useless and moldy in the granary.

As for the valuation of grain, it is not based on the market price of 1 pfennig per pound on the market. After all, that's the retail price. However, at the wholesale price of 07 pfennig, Marin would lose too much.

Therefore, in the beer hall in this small town, Marin and Otto III finally negotiated a price of 085 pfennig per pound to pay for the 200,000 gold coins to redeem Recklinghausen. So, Marin needs to pay 14.11 million pounds of rye. To put it on other princes, it is difficult to take it out. But for Marin, a man with modern farming techniques, it was a trivial matter.

Of course, this is not known to the outside world. The reason why Marin insisted on adopting the serf system and refused to give freedom to the peasants was also because he was afraid of the leakage of news. You know, serfs and peasants are different. Farmers have a higher degree of freedom and can even leave the estate to spread the word. And serfs, except those serfs who were voluntarily abandoned by the serf owners because the manor was full, other serfs could not leave the manor at will, unless they got the permission of the serf owners.

Obviously, the serf system is more conducive to the secrecy of modern agricultural technology. Therefore, until now, the secret of Marin's agricultural technology has not been known by foreign countries. After all, Marin not only took advantage of the sluggish news flow under the serf system, but also organized a large number of soldiers to patrol the perimeter of the farmland during the spring and autumn harvest periods, and strictly prohibited all outsiders from approaching. In this way, others will not be able to learn the secrets of Beihai's agriculture.

Even, in order to prevent passing foreign businessmen from hearing the news that they should not know, during the spring ploughing period and the autumn harvest period, Marin ordered that foreign traders were prohibited from passing through the country, and only a few foreign trade ports such as Emden were opened. When the autumn harvest is over and there is nothing to see in the fields, traffic control will be released again. And domestic businessmen have also been warned not to talk nonsense outside. Unless, I want my family to be arrested...

Moreover, Marin is also a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". Obviously holding a lot of food in his hand, but he is afraid to sell it on a large scale. Even if the grains are sold at a discount, they are all sent abroad to sell in foreign regions with high grain prices, such as Spain, Italy, and England. Moreover, the flags of merchant ships of other countries were also hung.

Under such circumstances, the secret of Beihai's high grain yield has not been exposed until now, and it can be regarded as a proper method.

However, after all, there is too much domestic food, and it will always be consumed. The biggest problem is that Marin can hold back from selling grain, not necessarily the nobles under him. Therefore, in order to consume food, Marin specially developed the wine industry to consume food. Also, it can be sold at a price.

Selling wine is much more hidden than selling grain on a large scale. Even, in order not to attract attention, Marin also claimed that the origin of whisky is Scotland. Anyway, Scotland is overseas, and Marin is not worried about these people going to verify. Moreover, Scotland does have the craft of making spirits. However, Scotch whisky in this era is called "water of life".

At present, the kingdom of Scotland is in serious chaos because the king has been captured and cannot pay the ransom. Even if other countries want to go to Scotland to inquire about news, it is difficult to do so.

Coincidentally, the current King Edward intends to annex Scotland and seal the territory of southern Scotland near Northumberland to Marin, which was also agreed before.

And Marin also intends to use the opportunity to vigorously promote whisky making in Northumberland and the soon-to-be-acquired Scottish Borders in southern Scotland. In this way, it can also cover the local winemaking industry of Beihai.

Of course, the region makes whisky, but it's just a pretense. Marin will choose to build several larger distilleries in Newcastle Port to make "whiskey" openly. As for the grain used for wine, it is imported from abroad. Of course, this import is actually just transported from the Beihai country granary. However, the accounts will not show this, but will show imports from other countries. In this way, Beihai Kingdom will not attract attention.

Previously, Marin has been vague about the origin of the whisky, leading to speculation. However, Marin was a little worried when he said that Beihai Kingdom was the origin of whisky. After all, what if someone else came to Beihai for inspection? Then, many problems will be exposed.

This year, a large Polish wine merchant went to Beihai to investigate the source of whisky. Although he was fooled by Marin's subordinates, the other party seemed to be very interested. Moreover, people like this are definitely not three or two...

In addition, this year's autumn harvest is almost here. If the autumn harvest is ten, and the spirits lovers break into the Beihai Kingdom and discover the secret of the autumn harvest, it will not be good.

So, after thinking twice, Marin decided to set up a "whiskey distillery" in Newcastle as a guise to attract the attention of the outside world. Moreover, the origin of the "Royal Salute" is also counted in Newcastle.

Moreover, Marin will add a sentence "the 'water of life' originating in Scotland" on the wine in the future. In this way, it also explains the origin of whisky.

And, it's not afraid to investigate. Because, if someone goes to Scotland to investigate, they will indeed find that the ancient version of whisky, the "water of life", is indeed about 40 degrees alcohol. As for the difference in taste with the rye Erguotou marketed by Marin, it can be explained by the different skills of the brewers...

Even if someone else got the scotch recipe, Marin wasn't afraid. Because the method of making whisky in Scotland is very tricky, it needs to use peat...

Scotch whisky is made by first quagmire-roasting barley malt to create its distinctive aroma. If you want to learn to brew, you must first have a lot of peat... Moreover, this soil method is very expensive and the brewing process is also very long. Ordinary people don't like it if they study.

And, it also requires a lot of expensive food, which is the point. The distillery that Marin used as a cover in Newcastle would bring in a lot of food every day and show it to outsiders. Of course, the brewing process is kept secret.

In fact, the grain that is brought into the winery is an illusion. Because these "grain" means that the top layer is grain, and the bottom is soil or stones... Those foreigners who came to Newcastle to investigate whisky production, seeing that the grain "consumed so much", may have retreated...

With the cover of Newcastle Whiskey Distillery, domestic whisky brewing in the North Sea will not be targeted by those wine merchants and spirits lovers. You know, for good wine, God knows what these people will do.

Marin wasn't afraid that they would make trouble against the brewery. After all, there were guards in the brewery, but he was afraid that they would discover the secret of Beihai's high grain output. To this end, Malin specially built a new whisky distillery in Newcastle as a guise, and publicly used the name "Scotch Whisky" to attract the attention of others and ensure the information security of Beihai Kingdom... (Tianjin Novel Network)