The Rise of the European Emperor

After arriving at Königsberg, Marin told Chief Philip that he had interceded for the Teutonic State, and suggested that Chief Philip quickly return the credentials to Lithuania to settle the matter.

Because, now that the Grand Duchy of Moscow has not been beaten by the Crimean Khanate, the Lithuanians are still a little terrified of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. They are now also afraid that the Teutonic State and the Grand Duchy of Moscow will attack Lithuania from east to west. Therefore, now is the best time to draw up a treaty.

If the Grand Duchy of Moscow has been abused by the Crimean Khanate, and the Lithuanians can see the weakness of the Muscovites, they may not be willing to let the Teutonic state go.

Therefore, Marin suggested that the head of Philip should complete the contract exchange as soon as possible and complete the signing of the peace contract. Then, taking advantage of the moment when the new covenant was just concluded and the Lithuanians had not yet reacted, they quickly suppressed the Prussian nobles who had been supported by Lithuania and completed their complete control of the Teutonic state.

You know, those Prussian nobles, although their strength is not comparable to the Teutonic Knights, the rural areas they control are much larger than the four Hanseatic cities that the Teutonic Knights mainly control.

Basically, 50 kilometers away from the four Hanseatic cities, it is mostly the territory of the Prussian aristocracy. The "enclosure movement" that Chief Philip had previously engaged in under Marin's suggestion also mainly occurred near the eastern border area. There is a wasteland there, and there are not many Prussian nobles. Because the Prussian aristocracy is also mostly concentrated near the coast and the big river. The inland area consists of many wastelands. After all, the Teutonic state currently has a land area of ​​36,900 square kilometers, more than ten times the size of the counties of East Friesland. However, its population is only 300,000 people, twice that of the counties of East Friesland.

Therefore, in the Teutonic state, many areas are wasteland. Only the areas near the Baltic Sea coast and some big rivers have more developed agriculture and denser population.

However, the places occupied by the native Prussian nobles were all fertile plains and areas along the banks of large rivers, which were very suitable for agriculture. In the eastern part of the country, many wastelands lack rivers and irrigation, so it is impossible to cultivate the land, but it is suitable for sheep herding. Of course, if you are willing to spend money to dig ditches and canals, many inland plains can also be transformed into fertile fields. It's just that the investment is too large and it is not cost-effective.

It can be said that the large river banks and fertile plains rich in grain in the Teutonic Kingdom are basically in the hands of the local Prussian nobles. Although these Prussian nobles did not have the wealth of the Teutonic Knights who controlled the 4 Hanseatic cities, they had Lithuania and Poland as their backers behind them, and they were not afraid of being eliminated by the Teutonic Knights.

However, if the Teutons and Lithuania reached a compromise, these Prussian nobles would be sold. At that time, the Teutonic Knights quickly dispatched a large army to sweep these local nobles, complete the control of a large area of ​​​​the Teutonic Kingdom, and truly control all the economic lifelines of the Teutonic Kingdom.

"Philip, hurry up and make peace with the Lithuanians! Why are you still hesitating? Before the Grand Duchy of Moscow has been defeated by the Crimean Khanate, you should take the opportunity to immediately send troops and take down all the Prussian nobles who refuse to accept the management! You know, those Prussian nobles don't have a strong city as their backing, they have at most a few small castles. As long as you send out a large army, it is easy to sweep their manor. As for the castle, it can be conquered with a little time. After all, the castle is not strong. The city is so difficult to conquer..."

Chief Philip looked confused. After thinking about it, he said to Marin:

"Marin, I know you're right, and I've also prepared 10,000 new troops. However, the Teutonic state is different from your East Frisian country. You can speak your mind in East Friesland. , On my side, I need the authorization of the Teutonic Knights Congress!"

"Then hold a meeting soon! As long as you take the opportunity to destroy those Prussian nobles this time, the Teutonic Knights will be a stable and unified country in the future. In this way, you don't have to worry about domestic rebellion.

"

"Okay, then I will issue an order to convene all 800+ Teutonic Knights to come to Konigsberg for a conference!"

"That's how it should be!"

"By the way, Marin, you used to ask me to do some 'enclosure movement' in the eastern wasteland. Now, a few years have passed. I also used the 'enclosure movement' to win over thousands of wandering knights. The most important thing is The thing is, the sheep on the pasture occupied by the first batch of 300 wandering knights has become a scale, and they have begun to produce wool on a large scale. Look... Is there any way to help me solve the problem of wool sales?" Chief Philip Rubbing his hands, he looked at Marin expectantly.

It was only at this time that Marin remembered that five years ago, after Chief Philip had just become the Chief of the Teutonic State, he suggested that he use a large number of public wasteland in the interior of the Teutonic Country to win over those who wandered to the Teutonic State. The German wandering knights let them raise sheep in enclosures, and then focus on shearing them for foreign trade.

Now, five years later, Marin reckons that the sheep of Chief Philip's subordinates have also scaled up, and they can indeed engage in large-scale wool export. So he asked:

"Philip, are your sheep coarse-wool or fine-wool?" The finer the wool, the thicker it was and the less valuable it was. Generally speaking, the fine wool of fine wool sheep is used to weave high-grade wool textiles. Coarse wool, on the other hand, is made of low-grade wool textiles. Like the black cross vests on a white background for each of Marin's soldiers, they were all woven with coarse wool for the sake of cheapness.

"Well... I've been looking for a fine-wool breed for the past few years. However, it wasn't very successful. Because the best fine-wool sheep at the moment are in Spain. The breed seems to be called 'Merino'. But the Spaniards put This kind of sheep is a treasure and is not allowed to be exported at all. Anyone who exports it will be killed, which is very scary. Therefore, we cannot import Merino sheep from Spain. Therefore, we can only import it from England, another big country that produces fine wool. However, the British have also begun to control the export of fine-wool sheep over the years. It took me 5 years to use smuggling to get 500 British fine-wool sheep. Now, after breeding and expanding, it has only reached the scale of 2,000... As for the other sheep, it's the local rough wool..."

"2,000... that's not bad... by the way, what price are you going to sell the wool at?" Marin asked with concern.

Selling wool for Philip is not a problem, but the problem is that you have to be profitable. Otherwise, I wouldn't be so interested...

"Well, fine wool of English fine wool, I'm going to sell two pfennigs per pound. As for coarse wool, one pfennig and two pounds..."

"It's cheap..." Marin exclaimed.

You know, the British export wool, about 2,000 pence a bag, and each bag of wool weighs about 360 pounds. On average, the export price per pound of wool is as high as 5.55p. However, this is not enough, the British also levy a high export tax on wool, an export tax of 33 shillings and 4 pence per bag of wool, which is equivalent to 400 pence. In this way, the wool has actually reached 2,400 pence a bag in the hands of foreign merchants. On average, it costs a whopping 6.66p per pound. Pence and pfennig equivalent, that is, the price of British fine wool, as high as 6.66 pfennig per pound.

Philip, the leader, set a price of 2 pfennig per pound for British fine wool, which is not even one-third of the export price of British wool, which is really cheap. Unfortunately, shipments are too few. After all, there are only 2,000 British fine-wool sheep in the Teutonic state...

As for coarse wool, the European market generally has about 1.5 pfennig per pound. Philip's asking price is only one-third of the Western European market...

"No way, Marin, you know, the Teutonic countries are in Eastern Europe, and it is inconvenient to trade with Western Europe. It is also very troublesome to transport the Teutonic wool to Western Europe. If I don't take advantage of the price advantage, it is difficult to obtain market."

Marin nodded, and Chief Philip was also a smart man. The wool of the Teutonic countries has just entered the market. If it does not take the low-cost route to attract customers, it will not be able to open the market at all. The most important thing is that the wool of the Teutonic countries is not well-known, and can only rely on the low-cost dumping in the early stage to attract businessmen to purchase.

At present, there are 2,000 British fine wool sheep in the pasture of Chief Philip and his subordinates. However, there are more than 30,000 local sheep and the number is increasing rapidly. The annual wool output is also tens of thousands of pounds. If, after this war, Philip could capture more serfs from the defeated Prussian nobles to help herd sheep, he and his men would raise hundreds of thousands of sheep without any problem, or even more. The reason why there are only more than 30,000 sheep now is mainly because there are not enough sheep-herding staff...

Suddenly, Marin remembered—since he could buy slave girls from the Crimeans. It seems that the Teutons can also buy slaves for sheep shepherding from the Crimeans...

Marin told the idea to Chief Philip, who was very interested in the idea. However, he was also worried about how to transport slaves from the Crimean Khanate to the Teutonic State...

"The last question, does the Teutonic countries levy an export tax for exporting wool?" Marin asked with concern. There is no fixed standard for export tax, and it depends on the mood of each country. If the export tax is too high, the buyer's cost will also be greatly increased.

"There is no export tax for the time being, because the export of wool is still in the trial stage. After that, the export tax rate will definitely be set. However, I am the leader of the group, and I can reduce the export tax as much as possible. Hm... The wool export tax is set at 10%..."

Malin breathed a sigh of relief, and his previous worries disappeared. If the Teutonic wool export tax is as high as the United Kingdom, and the export tax for foreign purchases is directly set at 40%, then the cost of wool procurement will be greatly increased. Add in long-distance shipping, and that's half the price of the super-priced British wool.

Fortunately, Philip himself is the head of the Teutonic State, and he can interfere in the formulation of export taxes, which is good news...

In fact, European wool is in short supply right now. In Flanders, the European textile center, many woollen factories have closed down because of British restrictions on wool exports. If you ship the Teutonic wool to Flanders yourself, it will be very popular, and you will not worry about not being able to sell it.

Moreover, its own East Frisian also began to develop a small-scale woolen industry. However, the technology is not yet mature. Mainly in terms of wool cleaning and oil removal, as well as the removal of odor, it still needs to be improved. After all, you can't take out a piece of woolen textiles with the smell of sheep taint... When these technologies are perfected, Marin even plans to sacrifice textile artifacts such as "Jenny Spinning Machine" and "Flying Shuttle". Therefore, to obtain a source of wool now, it can be considered a rainy day...