Chapter 64: Let's cook salt!

After returning to Texel, Marin began to inspect his territory. This was the first full-scale inspection of his territory after the New Year of 1496.
巡 When visiting Tholencher, which is across the sea from land, Marin was surprised to learn that there was a trader who removed from a fishing boat a British sack of imported British salt for sale across the island.
怎么 "Why, aren't we an island? Why import British salt?" Marin wondered.
Schwartz stayed here for a few days, but happened to know something, so he answered:
"Boss, because the British have enough firewood to cook salt on a large scale. In the lowlands (the Netherlands) there is no firewood, so few people cook salt. Therefore, almost all the lowland salt is imported from Britain . "
哦 "Oh, is that so?" Marin raised a brow, seemingly grasping something important.
Then Marin called the salt merchant and asked about it. The salt merchant was a Jew, and he dared not hide it in the face of the lord. These days, Jews have little status in Europe, especially small Jewish merchants who are often oppressed and robbed by their lords. So he didn't dare to anger Marin.
"Lord Lord, this small batch of salt was bought in Amsterdam at a cost of 4.5 shillings per quart (the retail price of salt in the UK is 4 shillings per quart). Make every quart ... "
"Six shillings per quart ... so expensive?" Marin was a little surprised, but it was the seaside.
"Lord Lord, you don't know, this is still by the sea. It's fine. If it is inland, it is estimated that you can sell seven or eight shillings per quart of salt!"
"Isn't it very profitable to cook salt?"
"Make money? Lord Lord, our lowland region lacks firewood and cannot 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 British had a low salt price was because the British used rich coal to cook the salt, not to cook it with firewood at all.
The coastal areas of the North Sea have more wind and rain, and the temperature is not high. It is difficult to dry the salt. If you bask in the sun for many days, maybe a rain will make your efforts in vain. Just like the four major salt fields of Huaxia, most of them are areas with little rainfall or seasonal precipitation. It is better to control sun salt.
As for the northwestern Europe, it has a temperate maritime climate, with a lot of precipitation and low temperature. The southern European coast is actually suitable for salt. Because of the Mediterranean climate, the summer is hot and dry, and it is most suitable for salt. However, Europeans do not yet know how to dry salt. Even Daming had to wait until the late Ming Dynasty to promote the method of salt drying. Of course, in some areas of the Ming Dynasty, salt drying technology is already available, but it has not yet been promoted, and cooking salt is still the mainstream.
So in a warm and rainy place like Northwest Europe, cooking salt is a good choice ...
等等 "Wait ... boil salt ... Britons can use coal, why can't I use briquettes?" Marin flashed in his mind and finally grasped the point ...
"Coal briquettes ... boiled salt ... ha ha ha ha ..." Marin laughed happily.
Schwarz was on the side, somehow ...
"Boss, what are you laughing at?"
"Schwartz, I have found a way to get rich!"
"What is the way?" Schwartz was only interested in the military, and was otherwise insignificant.
"Let's cook salt!"
"Cooking salt? Boss, you know the situation on the island, lack of firewood, how to cook?"
"You're stupid, what did you forget about my house?"
"Huffman Estate?"
"Yes, our family is the coal owner of a coal mine ..."
"Do you want to ... use the coal of the manor to cook salt?"
"It's not stupid. I've asked Kohler to contact the ship. The next ship is expected to arrive in two days. By the way, Schwartz, let's choose a place to cook salt."
"Yes, boss!"
Then, Marin, with Schwartz and others, started off the coast around Texel-taste the sea ...
The reason why I want to taste the seawater is that Marin is trying the salinity of the seawater around the island. Since you want to cook salt, you must consider using the seawater with the highest salt content. In this way, fuel can also be saved.
In the previous life, Marlin had seen such a saying-cooking salt, a load of salt, consumed 400 kg of firewood.
The caloric value of coal is two or three times that of Chai He, so to cook a load of salt, a maximum of 200 kg of briquettes is required. A load of salt is 120 pounds, equivalent to 4.7 quarts. But how much is 200 pounds of briquettes? One Charteron (1.5 tons) is no more than 4 shillings. That's 200 pounds of briquettes, up to 3.2 fennies. However, 4.7 quarts of salt, at 4 shillings per quart, can be sold for 18.8 shillings, equivalent to 225.6 fennies ...
Of course, the labor cost of cooking salt is large, and we can't just look at fuel costs. But even so, the cost of a load of salt using coal briquettes as fuel is no more than 10 fennies. This is still overestimated, if conservatively estimated, the cost of up to 6 Finneys.
If you calculate this way, using coal briquettes to cook the salt, the revenue is estimated to be 20-30 times ...
"Mad, it's so profitable! The British can make a fortune by selling salt."
It is said that Hansa merchants set up a trading site in the United Kingdom to sell British wool to the Flanders. At the same time, British "cheap" salt was sold to low-lying countries and the Baltic Sea.
Among them, in the Baltic Sea, salt prices are extremely high. Because the Baltic Sea is the lowest salt sea in the world. Because the surrounding fresh water is injected a lot, and the temperature is very low, the evaporation is small, resulting in a very low salt content in the Baltic Sea. Even if you want to cook salt, that's extremely fuel intensive.
So, the salt price over there is called high. When the salt price in the inland area is the highest, a pound of salt can be exchanged for a sheep, which is about 10 shillings. The Baltic Sea area, although not so exaggerated, but the British salt was transported, and each quart of salt sold for more than 10 shillings, which is fluttering.
Marin suffered a lot, tasted a lot of sea water, and finally determined that the sea water on the west coast ~ EbookFREE.me ~ is more salty than the east coast. Therefore, cooking salt is naturally better on the west coast.
Furthermore, human activities are frequent on the east coast, and the sea surface is polluted. From time to time you can see some garbage floating on the sea. The sea water is not suitable for cooking salt.
The west coast has strong westerly winds, less human activity, and the seawater is much cleaner. Coupled with high salinity, it is very suitable for cooking salt ...
However, placing the boiling point on the upper air vent will cause air pollution to the lower air vent. Because the black smoke emitted by the burning of coal briquettes will follow the northwest wind and float to the southeast.
Marin originally planned to set up a salt cooking base in De Koog near the west coast, but De Koch's downwind outlet was the Denborg where Marin lived. As a health-conscious person, Marin eventually cancelled the plan.
In fact, the northwestern corner of Texel is best for cooking salt. The salinity is the highest there and the sea is clean. However, there is a big problem. That is, the coast of the west coast and northeast of Texel Island, due to the tide, often ebbs and shoals. This has also led to the island of Texel, where only the south and southeast of Tholencher and Odeshilde are suitable as ports.
Suddenly, coal from the Rhine was unloaded at Tholencher. Therefore, Marin must also take into account the transportation of coal from Tholencher to the salt cooking site.
After much thought, Marin finally placed the salt cooking place on the west coast beach northwest of Tholencher. At this location, the coal unloaded from Tholencher was transported closer, which was convenient for transportation. Moreover, even if the soot is scattered, driven by the northwest wind, it is also a man who scourges Tholencher, and does not scourge the Lord Baron where his Baron Marin is located ... Well, it was so happily decided ~ www.mtlnovel. com ~ Welcome the book readers to read, the latest, fastest and hottest serial works are all at ~ EbookFREE.me ~ Mobile users please go to read.