King of German Mercenaries

Marin was in a good mood now, of course, because he didn't know that the Duke of Saxony had picked his peaches. After gaining a large territory at once, Marin is still very happy.

In particular, the four large islands of Terschelling, Ameland, Vliland and Schimonek are of great value for development and utilization.

For example, Terschelling Island has such a large area and sufficient fresh water resources. On the Weibo that later Marin friends showed off, Marin remembered that there were three or four villages on the island, and thousands of people lived. According to Marin's estimate, cultivating 2,000 Ugrams of arable land on the island is not a problem at all. In other places, grazing can also be vigorously developed. On Amran Island, the situation is also relatively good, and it is possible to reclaim less than 2,000 Ugrams of arable land. As for Vliland and Schiemonnik, there seems to be only one village on each of the latter islands. Clearly, there is only one source of freshwater each. Therefore, at most one village will be reclaimed from each of the two islands. Almost, the two islands combined will not exceed 1,000 Ugrams of arable land.

In total, four to five thousand Ugram arable land can be reclaimed on the four islands. In addition, other large areas of the island, although not suitable for arable land, can also be used for grazing. After all, these areas are islands with humid climates. Precipitation is abundant even without freshwater rivers and lakes. Therefore, the pasture grows fairly well, and it is more suitable for grazing.

In addition, each island has a very suitable small fishing port. For example, West Terschelling on the island of Terschelling is a famous port in later generations. The island has also established a sailing school and a sailing museum.

Marin has snatched more than 3,000 fishermen from the Frisian coast, and he plans to settle half of them in West Terschelling. The rest are scattered over the other three islands.

In addition, there were originally more than 700 fishermen and 100 farmers on the four islands. Including the more than 3,000 people who immigrated to Marin, there are already more than 3,800 people.

However, most of these fishermen are fishing. Land reclamation, also has to rely on experienced farmers. For this reason, when Marin went to Württemberg to recruit troops, he also sent people back to the Ruhr region to recruit surplus serfs from his hometown.

Unlike recruiting fishermen, recruiting those surplus serfs will not be hostile to local lords at all.

Why is this? Because the land is limited, the serfs that can be fed are also limited. When there are too many serf children in the manor, the population is too large. But the seaside fishermen are not the same, the sea is infinite. As long as you have a fishing boat and know how to fish, you can basically get something. Of course, this is also because of the backward fishing technology in the Middle Ages, and there are not as big boats and modern fishing equipment as later generations. Therefore, as long as there are fishermen, there must be harvests, and there must be taxes. Although, that tax is just stinky salted fish.

However, don't underestimate those stinky salted fish. In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church had too much influence and too many rules. Catholics don't eat meat for about 100 nights a year. However, everyone is greedy, what should I do if I can't eat meat? Then eat fish!

Therefore, when meat is forbidden for hundreds of days every year, many people buy dried salted fish to eat during these fasting days.

Therefore, the salted fish business is still very large. If it weren't for the high price of salt in this era, selling salted fish would definitely make money. Of course, then again. If the price of salt drops, the price of salted fish will certainly drop with it. It seems impossible to make a fortune by selling salted fish. Unless, you can get low-cost salt to pickle salted fish. Meanwhile, other fishermen can only use expensive salt...

Relying on the show, Marin soon recruited a new phalanx of 1,250 people in Württemberg and Alsace. In addition, it also made up for the 39 people lost in the previous phalanx. The people who were sent to recruit serfs in their hometown in the Ruhr area also successfully recruited 2,000 people. If it weren't for the fear that the movement would be too loud and cause the dissatisfaction of the local lords, Marin would have wanted to recruit more people.

In addition, Marin purchased 500 head of cattle,

First used for spring ploughing, and then grazing directly on the island. It is now April, and the spring ploughing is almost over. Therefore, after Marin recruited people, he quickly dispatched them to Terschelling, planning to reclaim 1,000 Ugrams of arable land. Otherwise, the spring ploughing tail will not be able to catch up.

In addition, 6,400 civilians and 1,250 soldiers were added under the rule, and the food pressure on the Wadden Islands suddenly increased a lot. Marin now regrets that he sold a lot of rye to the UK at first, which basically led to the fact that now Marin has to import a lot of rye to the mainland, so as to feed the new 7,650 people.

This is seven or eight thousand people, each one has a mouth, and the consumption is also very large. Fortunately, there are many fishermen among them, and they can offset part of their food by eating fish. However, many of these fishermen are so poor that they do not even have their own small fishing boats. In desperation, Marin had to allocate 20,000 gold coins to help those fishermen go to mainland port cities to buy various fishing boats. If you want to harvest, you must pay. The newly added 4,300 fishermen (including the 600 fishermen robbed from Harlingen), once fully activated, can produce a large amount of dried salted fish every year, dedicated to him as a lord...

And in order to have enough cheap salt fish to marinate those dried salted fish. On the island of Texel, Marin also added a batch of salt cauldrons, focusing on the production of "cheap" salt for the fishermen under his control.

Not only that, Marin also personally inspected the grasslands on the island and found that the grasslands on several islands are mostly wild grasses, which are not good for grazing.

To this end, Marin sent people to various places to buy a large amount of alfalfa seeds. He planned to destroy the original wild turf and plant alfalfa after the spring ploughing was completed, so as to facilitate grazing.

Speaking of grazing, Marin couldn't help but burst into flames. When the Friesland bastards sacked the island of Texel, they roasted the hundreds of sheep they had smuggled in from England with great effort.

Those sheep were all intended by Marin to breed and expand, so as to facilitate the development of the wool textile industry in the future. Before the Europeans planted cotton in North America, the wool textile industry had been very thriving and profitable.

At the beginning, the British were still a weak country. When they did not dominate the sea, they completely relied on the wool textile industry to make money. As for pirates, although they are also profitable, they are full of danger and very uncertain. Only the wool textile industry has brought a lot of profits to the British. In order to obtain more profits, the British even engaged in a "sheep cannibalism" enclosure movement for hundreds of years.

Therefore, raising sheep and selling wool is also very profitable. Otherwise, the British would not have been engaged in the enclosure movement for such a long time. It was not until the late 18th century, when the cotton textile industry emerged that replaced the important position of the wool textile industry, the enclosure movement stopped...

The Flemish region in the Netherlands is economically developed because the Habsburg family attaches great importance to it because it is the most developed region in the wool textile industry in Europe. There are many woolen mills over there, and in the past, most of their wool was imported from England. However, after Henry VII came to power, he was jealous of the profits of the wool spinning industry and ordered a ban on the export of wool, and vigorously developed the wool spinning industry in England to compete with Flanders. So, now Flanders is short of wool, causing the price of wool to soar, and raising sheep is definitely profitable.

However, because the smuggled British sheep were eaten up by the Frisian bastards, Marin had to spend a lot of money and send someone to the UK to buy wool sheep again secretly, and then smuggle them back to the Wadden Islands.

Now, Marin has a large area of ​​land in his hands. Although there is not much arable land, most of the rest of the land can be used for sheep herding.

Although the Wadden Islands (West Frisian Islands) are isolated overseas, they are not small in size. The 5 main islands - Texel, Terschelling, Ameland, Vliland and Schiemonnik, each of which can be engaged in agriculture, fishing and grazing at the same time, very have an economic future. As long as it is well developed, whether it is agriculture, animal husbandry or fishery, it can bring a lot of profits to Marin.

Of course, the profits of fishing are actually not as high as those of agriculture and animal husbandry. However, Marin's original intention is not to make money, but to train and select sailors to participate in huge voyages with huge profits. Thinking of the big voyage with dozens of times the profit, Marin couldn't help drooling...

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