The French did not know that the reason why Marin had the confidence to open a barrel factory on a large scale in France was not only the intention to consume French oak resources, but also that Marin had enough confidence to open a barrel factory in France!
Why? Because the Beihai Mint can mint fake French Transnier small silver coins on a large scale! The cost of Marin is a silver-free "French Transnier small silver coins" that are mixed with nickel, copper, lead and other metals.
Thanks to Cuba's laterite nickel ore, Marin can obtain nickel metal ingots with much lower mining and smelting costs than copper. The combined value of nickel and copper, as well as lead for balanced density, is not high, and the overall cost is lower than pure copper.
In other words, the cost of the nickel-white copper "French Transnier Small Silver Coins" minted by Marin is probably not even one-tenth of the French self-cast Transnier Silver Coins, or even less.
However, Marin made the "Tnell Silver Coins" minted by the Beihai Mint almost reach the point of being fake and being real, so that the French could not recognize the true or false. Even because it was a machine-mint coin, the quality was much better than the manual coins of the French official mint. This was because Marin deliberately used inferior molds. If he did not deliberately release water, the coin would probably be very exquisite, which would beat the French genuine Transnell Silver Coins.
In other words, if Marin wants to spend money to set up a barrel factory in France and purchase wood, the cost is extremely low. Just ask the Beihai Mint to mint more fake French Transnier silver coins.
So far, Marin has ordered the casting of tens of millions of fake "French Transnier small silver coins" made of nickel and white copper, with a total value of millions of gold coins. The cost of casting is less than one-tenth of that of France.
In other words, Marin minting such bad money recognized by the French market can earn more than 90% of huge profits! If the production capacity is not kept up and the supply of nickel metal ingots is limited, Marin would want to mint more "Tnell small silver coins" of nickel and white copper. At least, he would have to achieve the small goal set at the beginning - minting 100 million French fake silver coins!
Think about it, suppose that the average daily salary in Germany is 2 Finney, which is equivalent to 100 yuan in later generations. However, the small silver coins in France, the value of the currency is probably half-discounted because of the low silver content, but it also has a value of about 25 yuan. The minting of 100 million fake "Dnell silver coins" is equivalent to minting a currency worth about 2 billion!
Using this money to purchase wood to make oak barrels in France is not only cheap, but also can sell them to make money. It not only hits France's shipbuilding potential, but also makes a lot of profits. It's like killing two birds with one stone!
...
As for establishing barrel making factories in the Netherlands and harvesting local oak resources, there is not much profit. Because there is no huge profit from minting counterfeit coins, barrel making factories have very limited profits.
However, because furniture factories have been established in Amsterdam and other places, Marin's spies have long since found out that there are not many oak resources in the Netherlands!
Unlike France, which has a large land and abundant resources, the Netherlands is already small in area and has a dense population. Therefore, the Netherlands is also like the Central Plains of China, with many trees being cut down. Although it is not as exaggerated as it is difficult to find trees in the Central Plains, the area of ​​domestic forests is far from comparable to France.
Therefore, Marin does not need to invest too much to fully consume local oak resources and attack the Netherlands' shipbuilding potential...
Moreover, Marin clearly remembers that in history, during the "sea coachman" period, the oak and pine used for shipbuilding in the Netherlands were not domestic, but wood mainly harvested from forests in southern Norway and southern Sweden.
Originally, the Netherlands actually had no decent shipping industry, and there were not many merchant ships. At first, the Netherlands mainly relied on the wool textile industry in the Flanders region. Later, in the mid-to-late 16th century, there were many reasons why the Netherlands' navigation industry could develop.
For example, England suppressed the Dutch wool industry! Because the UK strictly restricted the export of British wool to the Flanders, forcing the wool industry in the Netherlands to decline, local capital had to shift its investment direction. And the high profitable maritime trade became an important choice for the Dutch.
Of course, this cannot be lacking in support of external conditions...
First, around 1500, the Portuguese chose Antwerp in the Netherlands as a wholesale center in the North Sea region of Indian spices, which greatly stimulated the economic development of Antwerp. At the same time, it also promoted the development of the local shipping industry. After all, the transportation of spices is also a good business!
Not only that, the Hanseatic Alliance, which originally dominated the maritime trade in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, also committed suicide and fought many hegemony with the Danes, dragging itself down.
At the same time, the UK also turned against the Hanseatic League, deprived the Hanseatic merchants of their privileges and competed with them...
In this way, in the military conflict with Denmark and trade conflict with England, the former North Sea overlord Hanseatic League gradually declined in the 16th century. Of course, Denmark, which confronted Hanseatic League, did not gain any benefits, and the result of the confrontation between the two companies was the decline at the same time. This happened to be cheaper to the Netherlands, which had just begun to develop maritime trade at that time.
In other words, the important trade routes in the North Sea and the Baltic regions that the Dutch later controlled were taken from the declining Hanseatic League.
Of course, there is also the reason why the herring fish resources were transferred from the Baltic Sea region to the Netherlands in the North Sea region in the 16th century. In short, it was a variety of reasons that led to the rise of the Dutch navigation industry, full of accidents.
...
In other words, it was not that the Dutch wanted to dominate the ocean from the beginning. It was because the Dutch former opponents were all trying to die on their own and finally got the Dutch cheaper.
If we talk about the potential of shipbuilding, the Dutch are not qualified for oak resources alone!
Not to mention oak, even other wood resources are scarce. The result of scarcity of wood is not only limited by shipbuilding, but also by salt cooking.
Just like when Marin first came, the Netherlands was clearly near the sea, but because there was not enough firewood to develop the salt boiling industry, he could only choose to import salt from England across the sea, or import the mineral salt from Lüneburg from Germany.
Because of the lack of firewood as fuel, the Dutch even had a tradition of eating herring raw. Even in the 21st century, the Dutch had a savage way of eating the whole herring after removing the head and bones, which was much more vigorous than that of the Japanese eating sashimi.
This is also related to the lack of firewood and fuel in the Netherlands. Who would like to eat cooked foods? Or swallow the whole piece together...
There is no way, the price of firewood in lowland areas is high, and the fishermen on the beach are very poor and cannot afford to buy too much firewood. Therefore, sometimes when you are hungry, you can directly scrape off the internal organs with the Dutch fish cutter that was blown to heaven by later generations, and then remove the head and bones, and swallow the whole fish raw, which is very fierce.
Therefore, it is actually much less difficult for Marin to limit the development of the Netherlands' shipbuilding industry than France. Because there are really not many local forest resources!
Chapter completed!