After rushing back to Texel Island, Marin began to inspect his territory. This was the first time Marin conducted a comprehensive inspection of his territory after the New Year in 1496.
When inspecting Te Horenche, which is across the sea from the land, Marin was surprised to learn that there was a merchant who moved a sack of imported British salt from the fishing boat and wanted to sell it all over the island.
"Why, aren't we an island? Why do we still import British salt?" Marin was puzzled.
Schwartz stayed here for a few days, but happened to know something about it, so he replied:
"Boss, it's because the British have enough firewood to cook salt on a large scale. The lowlands (Netherlands) lack firewood, so no one cooks salt. Therefore, almost the entire salt in the lowlands is imported from England .”
"Oh, is that so?" Marin frowned, as if he had grasped something important.
Then, Marin called the salt merchant and asked about it. The salt merchant was a Jew, and he dared not hide it from the lord. These days, Jews have little status in Europe, especially small Jewish businessmen, who are often oppressed and robbed by the lords. Therefore, he did not dare to provoke Marin.
"My lord, this small batch of salt was bought in Amsterdam at a cost of 4.5 shillings per quarter (the retail price of British salt is 4 shillings per quarter), and it will cost 6 shillings when transported to the island of Texel. That per quarter…”
"6 shillings per quarter... so expensive?" Marin was a little surprised, this is the seaside.
"Your lord, you don't know, this is still by the sea, so it's good. If it is in some inland areas, it is estimated that a quarter of salt can be sold for seven or eight shillings!"
"Isn't boiling salt very profitable?"
"Make money? Your lord, we lack firewood in the lowlands, so we can't cook salt on a large scale! It is said that the British have a lot of firewood, so they cook more salt..."
Marin smiled, but he knew that the reason why the salt price of the British was low was because the British used abundant coal to cook salt, not firewood at all.
In the coastal areas of the North Sea, there are many winds and rains, and the temperature is not high, so it is difficult to dry salt. You have been in the sun for many days, and maybe a rain will make your efforts in vain. Just like the four major salt fields in China, most of them are areas with little precipitation or seasonal precipitation, so it is better to control sun-dried salt.
As for Northwestern Europe, it belongs to the temperate marine climate, with a lot of precipitation and low temperature, so it is a ghost for drying salt. The coastal areas of southern Europe are actually suitable for drying salt. Because the Mediterranean climate is hot and dry in summer, it is most suitable for drying salt. However, Europeans still don't know how to dry salt, and even the Ming Dynasty had to wait until the end of Ming Dynasty for Xu Guangqi to promote the method of drying salt. Of course, some areas in the Ming Dynasty probably already had the technology of drying salt, but it has not been popularized yet, and boiling salt is still the mainstream.
So, in warm and rainy places like Northwest Europe, boiled salt is a good choice...
"Wait... boil salt... the British can use coal, why can't I use briquettes?" Marin's brain flashed, and finally grasped the point...
"Ball... boiled salt... hahahaha..." Marin laughed happily.
Schwartz stood aside, inexplicably...
"Boss, what are you laughing at?"
"Schwartz, I found a way to get rich!"
"What kind of way?" Schwartz is only interested in the military, and is very ignorant in other aspects.
"We're going to boil the salt!"
"Cooking salt? Boss, you know the situation on the island. There is a lack of firewood. How do you cook it?"
"You stupid, have you forgotten what my family does?"
"Hoffman Estates?"
"Yes, our family is a coal mine owner..."
"You mean...to cook salt with the coals of the estate?"
"It's not stupid. I've asked Kohler to contact the ship. The next ship of coal is estimated to arrive in two days. By the way, Schwartz, let's go and choose a place to cook the salt."
"Yes, boss!"
Then, Marin took Schwartz and others, and began to walk along the coast around Texel Island—tasting the sea water...
The reason why he wanted to taste the seawater was that Marin was trying the salinity of the seawater around the island. Since you want to cook salt, you must consider using seawater with the highest salt content for cooking. In this way, fuel can also be saved.
Marin once saw such a saying in his previous life-boiling salt, a load of salt, consumes 400 catties of firewood.
The calorific value of coal is two to three times that of firewood, so to boil a load of salt, at most 200 catties of briquettes are needed. And a load of salt is 120 catties, equivalent to 4.7 quarters. However, how much is 200 catties of briquettes? A chartelon (1.5 tons) does not exceed 4 shillings. Converted down, 200 catties of briquettes, up to 3.2 pfennig. However, 4.7 quarters of salt, based on 4 shillings per quarter, can be sold for 18.8 shillings, equivalent to 225.6 pfennigs...
Of course, the manpower input for cooking salt is relatively large, so we can’t just look at the fuel cost. But even so, using briquettes as fuel, the cost of a load of salt does not exceed 10 pfennigs at most. This is still an overestimate. If it is conservatively estimated, the cost will be at most 6 Finneys.
If calculated in this way, using briquettes to cook salt, the income is estimated to be twenty or thirty times greater...
"Mad, it's really easy to make money! The British can make a fortune by selling salt."
It is said that the reason why Hanseatic merchants set up trading posts in England was to sell British wool to Flanders. At the same time, the British "cheap" salt was sold to the Low Countries and the Baltic Sea.
Among them, the Baltic Sea area, the salt price is extremely high. Because the Baltic Sea is the sea with the lowest salt content in the world. Because of the large amount of fresh water injected into the surrounding area, coupled with the low temperature and low evaporation, the salinity of the Baltic Sea is very low. Even if you want to cook the salt, it's an extreme fuel drain.
Therefore, the salt price over there is called a high one. When the price of salt in the inland area is the highest, a pound of salt can be exchanged for a sheep, which is about 10 shillings. In the area near the Baltic Sea, although it is not so exaggerated, when the British salt is transported there, it is sold for more than 10 shillings per quarter, which is very light.
Marin suffered a lot and tasted a lot of sea water, and finally determined that the sea water on the west coast is saltier than that on the east coast. So, cooking salt is naturally good on the west coast.
Moreover, human activities on the east coast are frequent and the sea surface is highly polluted. From time to time, some garbage can be seen floating on the surface of the sea. The sea water here is not suitable for boiling salt.
The west coast has a strong westerly wind, less human activities, and the seawater is relatively cleaner. With the high salinity, it is very suitable for boiling salt...
However, placing the salt boiling point on the upper air outlet will make the lower air outlet suffer from air pollution. Because the black smoke emitted by the burning of coal briquettes will float to the southeast along the northwest wind.
Marin originally planned to set up a salt cooking base in De Koog near the west coast, but the downwind of De Koog is Den Burg where Marin lives. As a person who values health, Marin eventually canceled the plan.
In fact, the northwestern corner of Texel is the best place to cook salt. It has the highest salinity and the sea is clean. However, there is a big problem. That is, the west coast and northeast coastline of Texel Island, because of the tide, often ebb and flow to expose the shallows. This has also led to the fact that, on the island of Texel, only the south and southeast of Thorenche and Odesschild are suitable as ports.
And the coal from the Rhine must have been unloaded at Thorencher. Therefore, Marin must also consider the transportation of coal from Tejorenche to the salt boiling point.
After thinking about it, Marin finally put the salt cooking place on the west coast beach in the northwest of Te Horenche. This location is relatively close to the coal unloaded by Te Horenche, which is convenient for transportation. Moreover, even if the soot is scattered, driven by the northwest wind, it is still the one who harmed Te Horenche, and could not harm the Den Burg where Lord Baron Marin is... Well, it was so happily decided...