The Rise of the European Emperor

Marin's salt sales are very well kept secret, and the salt cooking bases were all in the remote Frisian Islands at the beginning. Later, simply moved to Cape Breton Island in the Americas. As a result, most people do not know the origin of the dehalogenated salt in Marin's hands.

Generally speaking, refined salt that is not bitter in taste and white in color often comes from salt mines. The quality of mineral salt varies greatly. The worst salt and poisonous salt come from salt mines, but at the same time, the best salt also comes from salt mines. As for sea salt, before the promotion of dehalogenation technology, it has always been a medium coarse salt.

In fact, until now, those who know that Marin sells salt in large quantities are mainly Marin's major customers. For example, John II, Duke of Clifford, Sigismund I, and John II's brother, Philip, the great leader of the Teutonic State, etc., because these people are all agents of Marin's dehalogenated salts.

But even these agents are not entirely sure where Marin's dehalogenated salts come from. At first they guessed that Marin boiled salt, after all, Marin's fief was by the sea. However, after tasting the taste of the salt, it is not like ordinary sea salt. Therefore, they are also guessing whether there is a high-quality salt mine in Marin, or there is a mysterious supplier.

As for the de-halogenation technology, Marin has always kept it secret, and no one will know it. However, if it is noticed by someone with a heart and arranges for spies to infiltrate, it is inevitable. Therefore, Marin also needs a pretense to divert others' attention. Divert everyone's attention, as Marin did before setting up a large whisky distillery in Newcastle.

And Newcastle, because it is rich in coal and close to the sea, is a traditional base for boiling salt. It's better to use it to grab everyone's attention.

However, according to Old Mason's report, most of the salt-boiled merchants in Newcastle fled to the south because of the war. After all, Newcastle is too close to Scotland. This has caused a depression in the local cooking salt industry, leaving only a small number of small retail investors who are still insisting on cooking salt. Old Mason was well aware of the huge profits of the salt business. In England, salt may be nothing, but when it is shipped to Germany, it is a lot of money. If it is shipped to the Baltic Sea region, it will be even more profitable.

At the beginning, Marin made a lot of money by letting John II, Duke of Cliff, represent his own dehalogenated salt. For this, how could old Mason, as the prime minister, not know? It's just that John II didn't tell old Mason that those refined salts were provided by Marin. After all, this hugely lucrative business was monopolized by the Lamarck family where John II belonged, and even the Prime Minister, Mason, could not intervene.

Although he was unable to intervene, but the huge profits, the old Mason is the door clear. So when he saw some small local traders in Newcastle set up cauldrons by the sea to boil salt with coals, he immediately realized the profit. And after examining the price of coal, the old Mason was taken aback by the calculation, what a huge profit, right? Therefore, he immediately made a report and applied to cook salt locally. You know, as the Prime Minister, if the local salt-boiled industry develops, he can make a lot of money just by intervening.

However, when Marin approved Old Mason's request to boil salt with coal at the seaside, he did not make Old Mason responsible for the matter alone. Otherwise, this stuff will definitely be overwhelmed.

Therefore, Marin decided to let Kohler send a few spies proficient in computing to Newcastle, in the name of assistance, in fact, to monitor the management of Old Mason's cooking salt industry in Newcastle to prevent Old Mason from eating too fat.

Marin doesn't object to his subordinates taking advantage of it, but if they get more, Marin won't be happy. Therefore, for each profiteering industry, Marin will arrange spies to supervise and avoid losing control.

Moreover, according to this matter, Marin suddenly thought of the salt and iron franchise in ancient China.

Salt and iron specialize in this policy, how can I put it, it is a good thing for the imperial court, and it can greatly increase the tax revenue. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, the annual salt tax was as high as one million taels of silver, with a maximum of 2.5 million taels of silver a year, which was almost comparable to Tianfu.

In fact, this was the consequence of the serious corruption of the Ming Dynasty's civil service system. The price of salt in the Ming Dynasty was as high as 300 yuan per pound.

But in fact, the imperial court taxed only three or four cents of silver (one coin is equivalent to 100 cents) per citation (300 catties), and the imperial court only levied 2 cents per catty of salt. But the price of salt is as high as 300 yuan. That is to say, the huge price difference in the middle is divided up by the bureaucracy. It is no wonder that the Ming court was poor, while the officials were rich to death.

In contrast, the Song Dynasty imposed a high tax on salt, reaching 30 yuan per catty (more than 6 yuan in the Qing Dynasty), but the price of salt was 50 yuan per catty. That is to say, in the middle process, officials and businessmen do not make much profit. Unlike the Ming Dynasty, where salt was monopolized, the bureaucrats took all the benefits. The court only got 2 cents per pound of salt, which was a waste of money.

Even in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which claimed to hand over salt to the private sector, the tax was more than 6 cents per catty, three times that of the Ming Dynasty. If the Ming Dynasty controlled the salt tax well, even if the price of the salt tax in the Qing Dynasty was used, there would be no shortage of money at all. It can be said that this dynasty was eaten up by the bureaucracy

You must know that the salt tax in the Qing Dynasty was 6 yuan per catty, and the price of salt was more than 20 yuan. But you can see the history of Yangzhou salt merchants. There are many big salt merchants with millions of taels of paralysis. The richest , the net worth can reach ten million taels.

This is not a monopoly of the national super salt merchants, but only Yangzhou salt merchants. It can be seen that the salt industry is very profitable.

Even in the later New Huaxia era, the government has been officially operating salt for a long time, and it was only released in small amounts before Marin crossed. The annual turnover of China Salt Company reaches tens of billions, but it is unknown how much tax it pays each year. After all, such a monopoly group also has a lot of related households.

Just like a girl from Petrochemical whom Marin knew in later generations once said, despite the fact that Petrochemical’s annual turnover is close to 300 billion US dollars, there are as many as 810,000 employees of Petrochemical, and everyone’s annual salary starts at hundreds of thousands (regular salary). It’s only three or five thousand. It’s very shabby to check the salary table, but the bonus is much higher than the salary. Basically, everyone has an annual income of more than 100,000, as long as they are regular workers). This is just normal income, not including the gray income of some people. So, don't think that Petrochemical is a pig and can make money as a boss. Most of the money you make is used to fill the hole. Moreover, the 810,000 employees are still employed, excluding those who have retired over the decades

Marin knew that the salt monopoly system might be detrimental to the common people, but it was beneficial to the rulers themselves. Therefore, he also decided to engage in salt monopoly. However, he does not plan to recruit too many idlers in the company, nor does he plan to give employees high bonuses. Because if you spend money on these idlers, you will get less. Of course, you don't take the money yourself. After all, for Marin, money is no longer an issue. However, these funds are all fiscal revenue, which can be used for infrastructure construction and military support. In short, it is much better than raising idlers.

Therefore, after approving the old Mason, Marin signed another document, ordering the formation of the North Sea Salt Company, to centrally manage the production and sale of salt in the territories under Marlin's name such as North Sea and Northumberland. As for the current retail investors who are cooking salt in Newcastle, Marin decided to learn from the way PetroChina and Sinopec dealt with those retail gas stations in the future.

Marin will offer a more reasonable price to buy out the equipment of those salt-boilers, or even a high price. However, from now on, they are not allowed to boil salt and sell it.

And how to control those who cook salt secretly in the future? Marin also has his own big move. At the same time, he ordered the establishment of Beihai Coal Company and implemented the coal franchise system. Without coal supply, these retail investors can't make waves. The cost of chopping firewood and cooking salt is not low, and it is unlucky to be caught.

Moreover, for the coal mines in Newcastle, Marin also implemented the acquisition system and bought all the ownership of the coal mines. In the future, coal will be supplied by the family. Moreover, the inflow of foreign coal into the territory is prohibited (the UK does not only have coal in Newcastle). In this way, through the monopoly of salt and coal, Marin can firmly grasp a very profitable industrial chain in his own hands

As for whether the coal franchise is profitable, Marin is not worried. Because he has the killer honeycomb technology in his hand

All Chinese people who have experienced the 20th century have seen the era when all urban residents burned charcoal stoves. Before the era of gas and natural gas, urban residents in China, including many rural residents, liked to burn honeycomb stoves. This application alone can make coal mines more profitable, without worrying about coal sales.

If it weren't for the fear of irritating John II, Duke of Clever, Marin would have planned to come up with the briquette technology immediately. After all, you just changed the territory of the Ruhr area with your front foot, and then you launched the honeycomb technology on the back foot. Therefore, Marin plans to come up with briquettes technology in a few years. Otherwise, John II will be pissed off

Moreover, because there is no briquettes technology, and even Europe does not even have the technology to shake briquettes, the value of coal mines is not valued. Marin can take the opportunity to buy all the coal mines at a low price in the name of Beihai Coal Company. After the technology of honeycomb coal comes out, he can rely on exclusive monopoly to make money.

Ma Lin estimates that in the future, the profits produced by Beihai Salt Industry Company and Beihai Coal Company alone can support the finances of Beihai Kingdom and support tens of thousands of troops as long as they do not support idlers.

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