King of Mercenaries

After rushing back to Texel, Marin started surveying his territory. This was after the New Year of 1496, the first time Marin had done a complete inspection tour of his land.

When he arrived at ‘t Horntje which could see the opposite coast across the ocean, Marin was surprised to know that that there were merchants, who were currently hauling off a gunny sack of British salt, and intend to sell them across the island.

“What, aren’t we on a coastal island? Why are we importing salt from Britain?” Marin asked with confusion.

Schwartz had spent some time here, so he did know the answer to the circumstances, and answered:

“Boss, because the Britons have enough firewood, they can boil salt at a large scale. While the lowland areas (Netherland area) lacked firewood, that’s why nobody’s boiling salt. As such, almost all of the salt for lowland areas were imported from Britain.”

“Oh, is that so?” Marin cocked his brow, as if figuring out something important.

Then, Marin called the salt merchant over, and asked him about the related matters. The salt merchant was Jewish, and faced against a Lord, he dared not hide anything. In this day and age, Jewish people had no position of power in Europe, especially young Jewish merchants, they frequently get bullied or robbed by local Lords. That’s why, he dared not enrage Marin.

“My lord, my salt stocks were all purchased from Amsterdam, the cost is 4.5 shillings per quart (British salt were sold in bulk at 4 shillings per quart), after transporting to Texel, we’ll be selling them at 6 shillings per quart…”

“6 shillings per quart… that expensive?” Marin was quite shocked, they were already living by the coast.

“Lord, you may not know, but because we’re by the coast, it’s considered a good price. If we were further inland, every quart of salt could probably be sold for seven or eight shillings!”

“Then wouldn’t boiling salt be very profitable?”

“Profitable? My lord, we’re in a lowland region, and we already have a shortage on firewood, we can’t boil salt on a large scale! Rumor has it, the Britons have plenty of firewood, that’s why they boil a lot of salt…”

Marin chuckled, he was in the know, the reason why the Britons are selling salt at such a cheap price, was actually because they had a large stockpile of coal for boiling salt, they weren’t even boiling them with firewood.

The coastal area of the Northern Sea saw a lot of wind and rain, and the temperatures weren’t that high, so attempting to evaporate brine was difficult. You could put the brine under the sun for many days, but an unforeseen rain would waste all your previous efforts. For example in China, the four major salterns were more or less in areas with low rainfall or seasonal rainfall, which allowed them better control over making baysalt.

As for the Northwestern European continent, they had a temperate marine climate, with large rainfalls, low temperatures, it would be no less of a miracle if they could make bay salts here. The Northern European coastal area however, was actually suitable for making bay salts. Because of the Mediterranean climate, Summer was dry and hot, the perfect condition for making bay salts.

However, the Europeans still had no idea how to make bay salts, even the Ming Dynasty had to wait until the Late Ming era, when Xu Guangqi started popularizing the method of making bay salts. Of course, it was likely that there were areas in the Ming Dynasty which had the technology for making bay salts, however they haven’t been popularized, so boiling salt was still the mainstream method.

That’s why, in a temperate and rainy climate like Northwestern Europe, boiling salt was the most optimal choice…

“Wait a minute… boiling salt… The Britons are using coal, so why don’t I use briquettes?” An epiphany hit Marin, he finally grasped that important piece of information…

“Briquettes… salt boiling… Hahahaha…” Marin started guffawing happily.

Schwartz stood at the side, and was extremely confused…

“Boss, what are you laughing at?”

“Schwartz, I’ve found a way to be rich!”

“What way?” Schwartz was only interested in military matters, and was still inexperienced in everything else.

“We’ll be boiling salt!”

“Boiling salt? Boss, you know the situation of our island, we don’t have any firewood, how are we gonna do that?”

“Are you daft, did you forget what my family business is?”

“Hoffman’s manor?”

“That’s right, we’re Coal Tycoons who own a coal mine…”

“You’re thinking of… using the coal from the manor to boil salt?”

“You’re not a complete fool, I’ve already arranged for Kohler to contact the ship, the next shipment of coal would probably arrive in two days. Oh right, Schwartz, we’ll have to go pick out a location for boiling the salt.”

“Yes Boss!”

Then, Marin led Schwartz and co., and started patrolling the perimeter of Texel’s, as they tasted the seawater…

The reason why they were tasting the seawater, was because Marin was attempting to gauge the saltiness of the seawater around the island. Since they will be boiling salt, they would have to consider using seawater with the highest salt content. This way, they could also save on fuel.

Marin had once heard this saying in his previous life — boiling salt, for every load of salt, 400 catties of firewood was expended.

Meanwhile, the heat value of coal was twice to thrice that of firewood, hence, to boil one load of salt, the most they would require was 200 catties of briquettes. A load of salt was about 120 catties, which would equate to 4.7 quarts. However, how much does 200 catties of briquettes cost? One chaldron (1.5 tonnes) was less than 4 shillings.

After conversion, 200 catties of coal, was at most 3.2 pfennigs (pennies). But, 4.7 quarts of salt, assuming they sell for 4 shillings per quart, we could get 18.8 shillings, which converts to 225.6 pennies…

Of course, the manpower requirement for boiling salt was also great, so he couldn’t just consider the cost of the fuel. Even if that was the case, by using briquettes as the fuel source, the cost of one load of salt would not exceed 10 pennies. And he was making assumptions with the maximum cost, by a more moderate estimate, the cost would be 6 pennies at most.

After making the calculations, by using briquettes for salt boiling, the returns would be as gargantuan amount of twenty to thirty times…

“Holy fuck, this is extremely profitable! Just by selling salt alone, the Britons would have been able to become rich.”

Rumor has it, the reason why the Hanseatic merchants established a trading post in Britain, was to sell British wool over to the Flanders. At the same time, selling “cheap” British salt, towards lowland countries and the Baltic sea.

Amongst them, the salt prices in the Baltic Sea area was extremely expensive. That’s because the Baltic Sea contained the ocean with the world’s lowest salt content. Because there was a high influx of freshwater from the surrounding region, with a low temperature on top of that, there was a low rate of evaporation, which also meant that the salt content was quite low in the Baltic Sea. Even if they wanted to boil salt, that would be an extremely wasteful process.

That’s why, the salt prices over there were robbery prices. Over there, at the peak of salt prices for the inland area, a pound of salt was exchanged for a goat, which was about 10 shillings per. Meanwhile, for the coastal regions of the Baltic Sea, though not that exaggerated, but whenever Britain shipped salt over, each quart of salt could be sold above 10 shillings, without any trouble.

Marin had gone through much, and had tasted a good amount of seawater, and finally he was certain, the seawater from the Western Coast, was saltier than the Eastern Coast. As such, salt boiling should be performed on the Western Coast.

Besides, the people were more active on the Eastern Coast, resulting in pollution of the sea. Sometimes he could also spot trash floating on the sea. The waters around the area aren’t suitable for boiling salt.

On the Western Coast, it was windy, rarely any human activity, relatively cleaner waters, and with a high salt content, it was really suitable for boiling salt.

However, if they boiled salt upwind, then the places downwind would experience air pollution. That’s because, the black smoke that get released during the combustion of briquettes, would go along the Northwestern wind, and flaot towards the Southeast.

Marin originally intended to set up the salt boiling headquarters around De Koog, which was around the Western Coast, but directly downwind of De Koog was the Den Burg where Marin was staying at. As someone who pays attention to his health, Marin ultimately cancelled his idea.

In fact, the Northwestern corner of Texel was the most suitable spot for boiling salt. The salt content was highest, and the ocean surface was very clean. However, there was also a major problem. And that was the coastal line between the Western Coast and the Northeastern coast, because of the tide, it frequently reveals the shore. Which also made Texel’s ‘t Horntje of the South and Oudeschild of the Southwest to be suitable for ports.

Because the coal which was shipping through the Rhine River would without a doubt be unloaded at ‘t Horntje. That’s why, Marin needed to consider the logistics of moving the coal from ‘t Horntje to the salt boiling location.

After many considerations, Marin finally decided to place the salt boiling location, to be at the Western beach located Northwest of ‘t Horntje. That location was close to the place where the coal shipment from ‘t Horntje gets unloaded, and was also suitable for transporting. Meanwhile, even if the smoke started dispersing under the whims of the Northeastern wind, they’ll only plague the citizens of ‘t Horntje, and would not harm Den Burg, where he, Lord Baron Marin was living at… Alright, that is a wonderful decision…