What a bright future if you can get at least hundreds of thousands of pounds of saltpeter every day? But Marin would not say it out loud, but instead pretended to have a bitter face and cried to everyone.

"Oh, Your Majesty, I don't make any money in this business!"

Maximilian I was not that easy to fool, so he asked:

"Why are you so active in doing this if you don't make money? Don't coax me..."

At this time, many monarchs and nobles next to them also raised their ears, wanting to hear how Marin explains...

Marin naturally had a way to deal with it. He pretended to be embarrassed and then explained:

"His Majesty the Emperor is indeed wise, and he can see the problem at a glance..."

"Why, it's very profitable?" Maximilian I was interested. For the poor emperor, nothing attracted him more than making money.

Marin shook his head and explained:

"It's not for making money, but for another important material." After saying that, he also gave the emperor a "you understand" look.

"You mean... saltpeter?" The emperor indeed guessed the "answer" according to Marin's idea. Of course, that answer was not wrong.

Marin quickly coughed and signaled to the emperor, "You've talked too much"...

But many nobles present heard it, and those who were smarter immediately showed a sudden enlightenment. Those who didn't understand it asked those "suddenly enlightenment" colleagues.

Frederick III, the Elector of Saxony, explained to his colleagues:

"Marin means that he collects so much feces not for profit, but for the purpose of collecting enough saltpeter..."

"Why is this?" asked Anthony, Duke of Lorraine.

Frederick III continued to explain:

"You may not know, I heard that Marin could have purchased more than 100,000 pounds of saltpeter (220,000 pounds equivalent to 100 tons) from India every year. But later Spain and Portugal jointly divided up most of the saltpeter in India, leaving only a small share for Marin."

"But everyone knows that the Beihai Army of Marin has a high proportion of muskets and cannons and consumes a lot, which is definitely not enough. So, I guess, Marin's army should be very scarce of saltpeter, so we buy so much feces regardless of cost to extract enough saltpeter..."

"I see……"

"Mr. Frederick is indeed as wise as a torch..."

The nobles of the melon-eating people immediately understood, but in fact, this was what Marin wanted them to know.

In fact, after the development of Chilean saltpeter and the purchase of saltpeter from the Ming Dynasty, Marin was not short of saltpeter. However, Chilean saltpeter mines need to be hidden so as not to be united and fought for.

Moreover, the cost of using water to transport the harvest is not high, and you can also get a lot of nitrogen fertilizer and saltpeter. Why not?

In addition, this can create an illusion for other countries - Oh, Beihai is now short of saltpeter, so those guns and cannons are just decorations? So, let's do some votes?

But they didn't know that Marin was just trying to make the outside world misunderstand that he was short of saltpeter. Otherwise, other countries were frightened by his military strength and dared not provoke him on the voluntary side. How could he stand on the rightful side and annex other countries?

This is Marin's vulgar strategy - showing weakness to others and attracting others to provoke him. Then, he annexed the territory of those provocateurs with "righteous words and openness"...

There is no way, Germany is prone to group fights in groups these days. If you want to annex others, you are at risk of being beaten up in groups. Unless you stand on the right side, you will not find the reason to group fights you...

Of course, the next religious war does not need to be so troublesome. As long as you stand on the side of the "orthodox and righteousness" of the Holy See, you can openly engage in those "rebellions" and annex them.

...

While negotiating the acquisition of "saltpe raw materials" (feces), Marin also discussed transportation matters with many "customers". For example, transportation containers have become a very important issue...

Marin drew a picture on the spot and "designed" an oak toilet similar to an oil barrel for shipment of "cargo". Given the amount of at least hundreds of thousands of pounds per day, Marin proposed that Party A Blackwater Company will provide 10,000 oak toilets to Party B who provide "saltpeter raw materials"...

For some ulterior motives, Marin gave the order for these 10,000 oak toilets to the Netherlands and France respectively...

Needless to say, the orders given to the Netherlands must be to support the Emperor. Thousands of oak toilets also have a lot of profits. Moreover, Marin guarantees that there will be follow-ups.

The orders for thousands of oak toilets given to France, on the surface, were to please this "No. 1 Western Europe power", but in fact...

The reason is very simple - Marin has to consume the shipbuilding potential of the Netherlands and France...

Previously, Marin sent people to the Netherlands to establish a furniture factory, consuming oak resources in the Netherlands and reducing the shipbuilding potential of the Netherlands. At the same time, he also sent John Lafite to undercover France to promote oak barrel wine making, in order to consume France's oak resources and reduce its shipbuilding potential.

But those were not enough. Marin later realized that oak barrels were not only used for wine making, but also for other things. For example, flour, sugar, salt, and even feces - like toilets...

Moreover, the demand for these wooden barrels for shipping daily supplies is much larger than that of furniture and the wine industry.

It should be noted that in this era, Europeans were used to using barrels for stuffing. Not only were they used to using oak barrels for bulk materials such as wine, salt, grain, sugar, etc., but they also used them to use scattered commodities such as salted fish, bacon, wood ash, whale oil, resin and mineral sand.

Only those products that can be bundled and stacked without risk of leakage will be shipped in wooden boxes and bags, such as wool and fur...

For trade, bulk materials such as grain and salt rely very much on barrel transportation. Even in this era, Europe measured grain not by weight, but by volume. Rather, quarts and bushels were used to measure grain. Because when people shipped materials, they often used barrels to measure them directly, and were too lazy to weigh them.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content below! Of course, that is a bulk transaction, and the retail of scattered commodities, such as grain retail, is often measured in pounds. After all, ordinary people purchase small amounts and do not need to take containers that large. However, some wealthy households with better economic conditions also use volume to measure when buying grain. When buying grain in bushels, they use containers to measure volume.

In fact, even the Eastern China of the same era was used to using containers to measure grain. For example, when using a bucket of rice, the rice shop often used a few dollars to calculate the grain. Of course, some were also worth pounds. However, in ancient China, the food was cheap, and even ordinary people had the conditions to buy rice in a bucket.

In Europe during the same period, because the grain prices were too expensive, the lowest-level people worked hard on a day, and their wages were only enough to buy two or three pounds of grain, which was incomparable to China during the same period.

However, the transportation of bulk goods in the West still relies heavily on wooden barrels. Even if ordinary people don’t use that much, merchants still use a lot of wooden barrels for transportation. Therefore, the wooden barrel business is a big business.

This time, when Marin ordered thousands of oak toilets from the Netherlands and France, he had already set his sights on the barrel making industry in two countries (regions).

After all, wooden barrels were widely used in ancient Europe. Marin planned to invest heavily in the establishment of barrel making factories in these two countries and regions, specializing in cutting local oak for large-scale production of oak barrels. Moreover, he specializes in focusing on tall old oak trees suitable for use as keels. As long as he is willing to pay, there is no old oak tree that cannot be cut...

The poor Emperor and the French envoy didn't know that Marin was a good idea to purchase oak toilets from both countries (regions). Unexpectedly, Marin was digging the foundation of their navigation...

"Your Majesty, I will definitely send someone to the Netherlands to invest and build a few more barrel making factories to produce oak barrels. At that time, the barrel making factories will actively pay taxes to the government!" Marin solemnly told Maximilian I.

"Okay, okay, okay!" Maximilian I was also very happy to hear this. Although most of the taxes in the Netherlands were squandered by his uneasy son, he could still take out some of the hegemony that supported the Habsburg family. Marin was also relieved. Although he was unhappy about Marin pleading France at the same time, he also knew that this was the way to survive in a small country - to be able to get along with everyone...

Turning back, Marin clashed with the French envoy Dolby again and said:

"Barl Dolby, please believe that the Kingdom of America and the Grand Duchy of the North Sea are very happy to establish a good relationship with the powerful Kingdom of France. These thousands of wooden barrels are just the beginning. I plan to send people to establish multiple barrel factories in France. At that time, after these barrel factories sell barrels to create value, they will actively pay taxes to the French royal family..." Marin's face was very friendly, with a friend's face.

The French envoy Dolby was also very helpful, saying, "The power of France is indeed very useful", and then said with a reserved attitude:

"I will convey His Majesty Marin's kindness to His Majesty François, and I wish the friendship between the two countries will last forever!"

But he didn't know that Marin had already made a ruthless move and planned to build multiple oak barrel factories with huge output in France. God knows how many old French oak trees will suffer...
Chapter completed!