The Rise of the European Emperor

October is a harvest season, in which nobles all over Europe are excitedly waiting for the yields of the land, which they can then cash in for their splurge.

By the end of October, in addition to the old four provinces that ended in the middle of the year, other provinces also sent good news reports of autumn harvest production. However, because no new agricultural technology was used, the yield per mu in these new provinces was still in the 100-plus pounds range, which made Marin really uninterested. So, he could only force a smile and encouraged the representatives of several new provinces.

In addition, Marin also sent representatives in the British territories of Northumberland and the Isle of Wight to report on the results of the autumn harvest. However, England had just fought, and Marin didn't have high expectations there. As long as he was not allowed to allocate food support, he would be thankful.

To Marin's relief, Northumberland really did not need him to allocate food support. After all, the tens of thousands of refugees captured by Henry Percy last year were all stolen by Marin. And this group of people made great efforts to reclaim the land in Northumberland this year. Although they did not have a big harvest, they basically met their own food ration needs. Even the food produced, even the local garrison is fed together. This, for Marlin, is also a pleasant surprise.

As for County Wicklow in Ireland, because of the war, there has been a serious loss of population there, and there are not many people left in the area, and Marin does not expect any autumn harvest there.

However, there are still hundreds of thousands of people on the entire island of Ireland. Of course, mainly in other countries on the island. Marin intends to allocate a batch of food to attract the floating population on the island and move to County Wicklow to live and cultivate land. To this end, Malin specially recruited a group of Irish people to go to various Irish states to publicize and encourage Irish people to move to County Wicklow to live. And the slogan Marin asked them to promote is - "enough brown bread"...

This slogan, put into modern times, is estimated to make people laugh out loud. But in this day and age, it's definitely a killer. Now, the Irish have not yet started to grow potatoes, so they are quite short of food. Therefore, the population of the island is not very large, only 200,000 to 300,000 people. Moreover, because of the backward agriculture, many people in Ireland cannot eat enough. Using the slogan "enough brown bread" to promote it will definitely have a powerful effect.

As for whether he would offend the other nobles on the island, Marin didn't care that much. In fact, Marin even expected other Irish princes to take the initiative to find fault out of anger. In this way, Marin has an excuse to send troops to annex his land... Marin's slogan is - don't be afraid to cause trouble, but be afraid to cause others, and others will not respond... Because if the other party endures, Marin has no excuse to play on the topic. now...

...

These agricultural problems are small problems, but the new Prime Minister of Northumberland, Mason, has sent an application report, asking Marin to build a large salt cooking base near Newcastle...

Old Mason was the former Prime Minister of the Duchy of Cliff. After he helped John II, Duke of Cliff, he was sent to Northumberland to become Prime Minister by Marin.

After arriving in Newcastle, the old Mason keenly discovered that the coal produced locally in Newcastle is very good for cooking salt.

In fact, the locals have long used coal to cook salt. However, the Newcastle way of cooking salt is rather extensive. They set up cauldrons directly on the beach and used lump coal as fuel to boil salt. However, this primitive and extensive way of boiling salt is very inefficient. Unlike Marin's salt-boiled base, all the firewood-saving stoves are used, which has a high fuel utilization rate and a faster speed.

Moreover, the local people cook salt, it is also very stupid. They don't filter the brine, they just boil a pot of seawater dry, then scrape off the salt.

The salt boiled in this way has a slightly bitter taste because of the residual magnesium ions. It's not like when Marin boils the salt, when it's more than halfway through the boil, he takes the salt out of the rest of the brine. In this way, magnesium ions, etc., which cause bitter taste, remain in the last bit of salt brine. Although the salt that was fished out did not reach the level of refined salt in later generations, it was definitely much better than coarse salt.

The English people of this era did not understand this, they only knew that when the sea water was boiled dry, what they got was naturally bitter coarse salt. It can be used for pickling pickles and meat fish, but it is still a little bit worse for people to eat.

However, this is also Marlin hypocritical. To tell the truth, the coarse salt obtained by boiling seawater, although not very good, is better than most mineral salts. The residual magnesium ions in seawater are already relatively small, like the salt dug out of a salt mine, there is only one more impurity. Even some mineral salts contain toxic ingredients, which can cause cancer if you eat too much.

In general, the coarse salt boiled by the English people with coal is already considered to be the top grade in salt. Generally speaking, the best salt is produced by some rare high-quality salt mines. Some salt mines are of high quality and have no impurities. Then, this kind of salt has become the best salt, which is specially supplied to the nobles, and the price is higher.

Medium salt is coarse salt boiled in sea water. Although this kind of salt tastes average, at least it has no strange taste and toxicity, and it is safe to eat. This salt was generally supplied to the petty aristocracy and the merchant class, that is, the middle class who had some money.

The inferior salt is the salt produced by the inferior salt mines. Most of these salts are dull in color, with a lot of obvious impurities. As for the bitter taste, that's normal, and it's not surprising that it contains some toxic substances... Just like this, it is difficult for ordinary people to eat such mineral salts often...

The well-known Duchy of Lüneburg in Germany was developed based on the salt mines of Lüneburg. In the Middle Ages, the salt of Lüneburg made the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg a rich country. Even the capital of the duchy moved to Lüneburg... Moreover, the Elbe-Lübeck Canal, which connects Lübeck and the Elbe River, was originally used to transport Lüneburg's mineral salt to the Baltic Sea region. high price sale...

However, the emergence of the de-halogenated refined salt of Marin has made the mineral salt of the Duchy of Lüneburg unsalable in the Baltic Sea region. After all, other people's salt is not bitter, but your salt tastes bitter. If the price difference is not big, fools know how to choose...

...

Of course, none of these old Masons knew. After all, old Mason had just joined Marin's camp, and he didn't know the secret of Marin's fortune by cooking salt.

However, when he was in Newcastle, he saw locals use coal to cook salt in large pots by the sea, which seemed to be very cheap. At least, it's much cheaper than the Germans cooking salt with firewood. So, the shrewd old prime minister asked whether to use Newcastle's rich local coal resources to build a large-scale salt boiling center by the sea?

...

Marin admired the keen intuition of the old Mason. In fact, Marin had planned to do so before. After all, it is cheaper to build a salt cooking centre locally in Newcastle.

However, before Marin was planning the Ruhr area, he had not succeeded. Moreover, Marin's control over Newcastle was not high enough at that time, and he was worried that the news of the establishment of a salt boiling base in Newcastle would be leaked and affect his plan to seize the Ruhr area. So, he put the plan on hold for now.

Now that the Ruhr area has been obtained, there are not so many scruples...

However, considering that Old Mason was from the Principality of Clifford, Marin, while giving his approval, also ordered the Old Mason family not to pass the news back to the Principality of Clifford.

Obviously, Marin did not want to irritate his ally John II, Duke of Clever. If he knew that the coal from the Earl of Mark, which he exchanged for Marin, had the power to boil salt, he would definitely regret it.

Of course, even if John II knew, it would be of little use. Because, John II had no coastal territory. Coal alone, without sea water, is useless. However, it is best not to stimulate him.

In this way, Marin approved the establishment of a salt boiling center on the seaside of Newcastle, and handed it over to the old Mason. However, Marin did not hand over the technology of dehalogenated salt and wood-saving stoves to old Mason. In this way, the salt boiled in Newcastle is bitter kosher salt. However, such coarse salt is also very popular in the European market. At least, more popular than low-grade mineral salt. Therefore, it can also be sold for a lot of money.

The reason for this is that Marin wants to make a difference in quality. With Newcastle's coarse salt as a foil, it can also show the excellent quality of Cape Breton Island's dehalogenated salt... The two salts are sold together, and the effect is better...