After rushing back to Texel Island, Marin began to inspect his territory. This was the first comprehensive inspection of his territory after the New Year in 1496.

When inspecting Thorenchet, who was across the sea from the land, Marin was surprised to learn that a merchant had brought down a sack of imported British salt from a fishing boat and sold it across the island.

"What, aren't we an island? Why do we still need to import British salt?" Marin said in confusion.

Schwartz stayed here for a few days, but happened to know something, so he replied:

"The boss is because the British have enough firewood and can cook salt on a large scale. However, the lowlands (Netherlands) lack firewood, so no one cooks salt. Therefore, almost the entire lowlands are imported from the UK."

"Oh, is that?" Marin raised his eyebrows, as if he had grasped some point.

Then, Marin called the salt merchant to inquire about the relevant matters. The salt merchant was a Jew, and he dared not hide it from the lord. Nowadays, Jews had no status in Europe, especially the small Jewish merchants, who were often bullied and robbed by the lord. Therefore, he did not dare to anger Marin.

"Return to the Lord Lord, this batch of salt was bought in Amsterdam, and the cost was 4.5 shillings per quart (the retail price of British salt was 4 shillings per quart). It was shipped to Texel Island and sold for 6 shillings per quart..."

"6 shillings per quarter... so expensive?" Marin was a little surprised. This was by the sea.

"Lord, you don't know, this is still on the beach. If it were in some inland areas, it would probably be sold for seven or eight shillings per quarter!"

“Wouldn’t it be very profitable to cook salt?”

"Make money? Lord Lord, our lowland areas lack firewood and cannot cook salt on a large scale! It is said that there is a lot of firewood on the British, so there is a lot of salt..."

Marin smiled. He knew that the reason why the British had low salt prices was actually because the British used coal with abundant reserves to cook salt, and did not use firewood to cook salt at all.

In the North Sea coastal areas, there are many winds and rains, and the temperature is not high, so it is difficult to dry salt. If you dry for many days, maybe a rain will waste your efforts. Just like the four major salt fields in China, most of them are areas with less precipitation or seasonal precipitation, so it is easier to control salt drying.

As for the Northwest Europe, it has a temperate marine climate, with a lot of precipitation and low temperatures, and it is a ghost for salt drying. In fact, it is suitable for salt drying along the coast of southern Europe. Because the Mediterranean climate is hot and dry in summer, it is most suitable for salt drying. However, Europeans do not know how to dry salt drying at present. Even the Ming Dynasty had to wait until the end of the Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi promoted the method of salt drying. Of course, some areas of the Ming Dynasty had about the technology to dry salt drying, but it had not been promoted yet, and boiling salt was still the mainstream.

Therefore, in a warm and rainy place like Northwest Europe, boiling salt is a good choice...

"Wait...boil salt...The British can use coal, why can't I use coal balls?" Marin's mind flashed and he finally grasped the point...

"Coal balls...boil salt...hahahaha..." Marin laughed happily.

Schwartz stood aside for no reason...

"Boss, what are you laughing at?"

"Schwartz, I found a way to make a fortune!"

"What's the way?" Schwartz was only interested in military affairs, and was very novice in other aspects.

"We need to cook salt!"

"Boss, you know the situation on the island, it's lack of firewood, how to cook it?"

"You are stupid, you forgot what I do at home?"

“Hoffman Manor?”

"Yes, our family is the coal boss who runs a coal mine..."

"Do you want to... use the coals from the estate to cook salt?"

"It's not stupid. I've asked Kohler to contact the ship. The next ship of coal will probably arrive in two days. By the way, Schwartz, let's choose a place to cook salt."

"Yes, boss!"

Then, Marin took Schwartz and others to start tasting the sea water around Texel Island...

The reason for trying sea water is that Marin is trying the saltiness of the sea water around the island. Since you want to cook salt, you must consider using the sea water with the highest salt content to cook. This will also save fuel.

In his previous life, Malin once saw this saying - boiling salt, a load of salt costs 400 kilograms of firewood.

The calorific value of coal is two or three times that of firewood, so it takes up to 200 kilograms of coal briquettes to cook a load of salt. A load of salt is 120 kilograms, equivalent to 4.7 quarts. However, how much does 200 kilograms of coal briquette cost? A Charteron (1.5 tons) does not exceed 4 shillings. Convert to 200 kilograms of coal briquettes, up to 3.2 Finney. However, 4.7 quarts of salt, calculated at 4 shillings per quart, can be sold for 18.8 shillings, equivalent to 225.6 Finney...

Of course, the manpower investment in boiling salt is large, and we cannot only look at the fuel cost. But even so, using coal balls as fuel, the cost of a load of salt will not exceed 10 fenis. This is still an estimate of the increase. If it is conservatively estimated, the cost of a maximum of 6 fenis.

If you calculate this way, using coal balls to cook salt will probably have a huge profit of twenty or thirty times...

"Mad, it's so profitable! The British can make money by selling salt."

It is said that the reason why Hanseatic merchants set up trading stations in the UK was to sell British wool to the Flanders. At the same time, they sold British "cheap" salt to the Low Countries and the Baltic Sea.

Among them, the Baltic Sea region has very high salt prices. Because the Baltic Sea is the sea with the lowest salt content in the world. Because there is a lot of fresh water injected around it, the temperature is very low and the evaporation is small, the Baltic Sea has very low salt content. Even if you want to cook salt, it will consume extremely fuel.

Therefore, the salt price over there is so high. When the salt price in the inland areas is at its highest, it can be exchanged for a sheep, which is about 10 shillings. Although the Baltic Sea is not that exaggerated, the British salt shipped over and sold for more than 10 shillings per quarter of salt, which was light and fluttering.

Marin suffered a lot and tasted a lot of sea water. Finally, he confirmed that the sea water on the west coast is saltier than the one on the east coast. Therefore, it is naturally better to cook salt on the west coast.

Moreover, humans are frequently active on the east coast and the sea surface is polluted. Sometimes some garbage can be seen floating on the sea surface. The sea water here is not suitable for cooking salt.

The west coast has strong west winds, less human activities, and the sea water is relatively clean, and the salinity is high, which is very suitable for cooking salt...

However, placing the salt boiling site on the upper air outlet will cause air pollution to the lower air outlet. Because the black smoke emitted by the burning of coal balls will drift to the southeast along the northwest wind.

Marin originally planned to set up a salt-boiling base in Dekoch near the west coast, but the downstream Dekoch was Demborgburg where Marin lived. As a person who values ​​health, Marin finally canceled this plan.

In fact, the northwest corner of Texel is the most suitable for boiling salt. There is the highest salinity there and the sea surface is very clean. However, there is a big problem. The west coast of Texel and the northeast coastline of Texel often reveals shallows due to tides. This also leads to Texel, only Texel and Odsheld in the south and southeastern areas are suitable for ports.

The coal transported from the Rhine was definitely unloaded at Thorenche. Therefore, Marin must also consider the transportation of coal from Thorenche to the salt boiling site.
Chapter completed!