The work of spring plowing is in full swing. For the era before the industrial age, agriculture was the most fundamental event in a country. So, no matter how important it is, it can't be overstated.
Everything went well, and Marin's work of collecting feces and plant ash went very smoothly. The common people are very supportive of Lord Earl's action to help clean up the excrement. Since Marin started to organize people to clean up the feces in the city every day, towns such as Aurich and Emden are no longer smelly.
It's just that the leftovers from killing fish from the Wadden Islands are far from enough. Because the scale of the Wadden Islands fishery is so large, and it has to supply more than 10,000 Ugrams of arable land on the archipelago. Originally, as far as the arable land in the Wadden Islands is concerned, the leftovers from killing fish are absolutely enough, and there are many more.
However, Marin suddenly increased 60,000 Ugrams of arable land, and the 10,000 Ugrams of his men's arable land also had to kill fish leftovers. So, the gap suddenly becomes huge.
In desperation, Marin had no choice but to set his sights on the newly laid East Frisian coastal area...
After Marin took East Frisia before, he gave priority to controlling the agriculturally developed Lyle County area, as well as the Emden and Aurich areas. Then, for the inland nobles, a campaign was carried out.
However, for the seaside area, Marin's control is not enough. It happened that there was an urgent shortage of leftovers for killing fish, so Marin sent troops to inspect the coastal areas and the East Frisian Islands in the sea, count the household registration of fishermen, and organize the collection of leftovers for killing fish.
Such a statistic shocked Marin. It turns out that East Frisia has a population of more than 60,000, and more than 20,000 are fishermen. It is worthy of the German seafaring nation. There are so many people who live on the sea...
Marin was actually overjoyed that so many people were fishermen. Because the more fishermen there are, the more sailors there are to choose from.
Marin made a rough estimate. From the more than 20,000 fishermen, it is entirely possible to draw 2,000 sailors. However, 2,000 sailors is not a small number for a big sail, but it is really not too many. Still, it's better than nothing...
The fishermen of East Frisia are not doing well. Their burden is heavy. Similar to the fishermen in West Frisia, the fishermen need to hand over 40% of their catch to the lord and 10% to the church. However, because the salt for pickling salted fish needs to be paid by fishermen themselves. Therefore, the salted fish they need to hand in actually accounts for 70% of their harvest.
If Marin wants to recruit these fishermen for his own use, he must first reclaim the power of the seaside lord. There are also many lords by the sea. These lords occupy a large area of land, but the development degree is very small. The little lords here make profits entirely by reselling the salted fish handed in by fishermen. However, the profit of selling salted fish is very low, and the shipping cost is still high. Therefore, these fisherman lords are actually very poor, far less wealthy than those agricultural lords. They are often called "salted fish lords", full of ridicule and ridicule.
Therefore, after Marin took out 5,000 Ugrams of arable land, he replaced all the lordships in the seaside area.
Although those salted fish lords exchanged a large area of seaside territory for hundreds of Ugrams of cultivated land, their profits did not decrease. Because the income from arable land is no lower than reselling salted fish. Because of the inconvenient transportation, the high cost of land transportation, and the high price of salt, there is no profit in selling salted fish.
Marin only used 5,000 Ugrams of arable land and the same amount of other types of land to exchange the land of a group of coastal lords.
In fact, it was these coastal lords who were stupid. The land area they occupy can at least reclaim 20,000 to 30,000 Ugrams of arable land.
Of course, the investment required to reclaim land in coastal areas is also huge. These poor salted fish lords can't afford the funds.
Among other things, to reclaim the coastal areas into farmland, it is necessary to dig irrigation canals from some large rivers to connect them to the coastal plains. The cost of digging irrigation canals is quite high. Even if it is replaced by the original East Frisian Earl Edsard I, it may not be affordable. Only a local tyrant like Marin can afford the capital cost of large-scale reclamation of wasteland and digging irrigation canals.
However, the huge investment is also worth it. Because Marin holds the secret of increasing food production, and the price of food is so expensive. Therefore, no matter how large the investment is, the return is also very high.
The only thing to consider is whether there is enough fertilizer. There is no shortage of manure and potassium fertilizers. As long as the population is sufficient, manure must be available every day. As for potash fertilizer, because Marin obtained the bitter salt mine rich in potassium salt, there is no problem. Only the leftovers from killing fish need to look at the scale of fishing.
After Marin took over the lordship of all the fishing villages by the sea, he began to revise his strategy. Because the amount of salt produced in Yancheng is limited, Marin is temporarily unable to reimburse the fishermen for part of the salt, nor can he provide cheap salt. Therefore, Marin can only temporarily sharpen 10% of the catch and hand it in to reduce the burden on the fishermen. The original 40% of the catch was handed in, and it was changed to 30%.
However, Marin requested that these fishermen must hand in the leftovers of the usual fish killing, except for the poisonous fish gall, for use as fertilizer. The leftover fish bones they usually eat fish have to be collected and handed over...
Also, when fishermen come back from fishing, they have the habit of sorting fish, throwing away unpalatable unsalable fish and throwing them into the sea.
But Marin forbids them to do this in the future. These fish that were originally to be discarded, Marin intends to collect them and use them as fertilizer. In Marin's view, these fish that were supposed to be discarded are all phosphate fertilizers! Dried fish in the sun, ground into powder, mixed into dung blocks, can properly nourish the farmland...
The more than 20,000 fishermen are indeed not covered. Although the fishing boats here are not as sufficient as the fishermen of the Wadden Islands supported by Marin, there are more fishermen here than the Wadden Islands. The total number of fishing boats still exceeds that of the Wadden Islands. Therefore, there are more leftovers from killing fish here than in the Wadden Islands. As soon as Marin collected it, he found that there was no shortage of phosphate fertilizer this year...
Regarding the fact that East Frisian fishermen also lack fishing boats, Marin also plans to set up a bank that will be responsible for low-interest loans to fishermen to buy fishing boats. With fishing boats, fishermen can catch more fish. With more fish, more fish offal is produced. Marin will also be able to obtain more natural phosphate fertilizers... In short, this is a win-win thing...
Even Marin is still very dissatisfied with the huge size of more than 20,000 fishermen. Because the number of sailors these fishermen can provide is also very limited.
Therefore, Marin plans to recruit more surplus serfs from the mainland, select good water quality, let them become fishermen, and give them loans to buy fishing boats. In this way, the scale of fishermen has expanded, and Marin has more options for recruiting sailors.
You know, the sea is infinite. In this era, humans have not used large machine-driven fishing boats or super-large trawl nets driven by machines. Therefore, fish in the sea have not been caught to the point of endangerment. Even, human fishing ability is still very, very weak in this era, and its impact on the sea is minimal.
Therefore, in this era, as long as you have enough fishermen and fishing boats, you will never run out of fish in the North Sea fishing grounds.
The more sea fish caught, the more salted fish Marin, the great lord, would get to hand in. And salted fish is food. If there is more food, it will naturally be able to feed more people.
At the same time, fishermen catch more fish, and there will be more leftovers from killing fish and sorting and discarding fish. In this way, Marin's farmland can also get enough phosphorus fertilizer...
In short, vigorously developing the fishery will not only bring in a large amount of salted fish as food, but also bring in a large amount of natural phosphorus fertilizer... No matter how you calculate it, it is very cost-effective...
Therefore, Marin must be very supportive of the development of fisheries. With the development of the fishery, his income will be more, and there will be more salted fish. Salted fish is also food. If there are more salted fish, more people can be fed. Moreover, more fishing will bring more natural phosphate fertilizers. When phosphate fertilizers are sufficient, Marin's arable land can also produce more food...