Marin did a very good job of keeping the salt confidentiality work. The salt cooking base was originally located in remote places in the Friesian Islands. Later, it simply moved to Cape Breton Island in the Americas. This led to most people not knowing the origin of the salt removed from Marin's hand.
Generally speaking, fine salts with non-bitter taste and white color often come from salt ore. The quality of mineral salts varies greatly. The worst-quality bitter and toxic salts come from salt ore, but at the same time, the best salts also come from salt ore. As for sea salt, before the promotion of de-bralization technology, they were always medium-sized coarse salt.
In fact, until now, the people who knew that Marin sold salt in large quantities were mainly several of Marin's major customers, such as John II, Duke Cliff, Zigmont I, and John II's brother, Chief Philip, the Teutonic Kingdom... because these people are agents of Marin's de-branded salt.
However, even these agents did not know the source of Marin's debride salt. At first they guessed that Marin was boiling salt, after all, Marin's fief was on the beach. However, after tasting the taste of Marin's refined salt, it was not like ordinary sea salt... So, they were also guessing whether Marin had a high-quality salt mine, or a mysterious supplier...
As for the de-branding technology, Marin has always kept it a secret and no one could know it. However, if someone is noticed and arranged for spy infiltration, it is inevitable. Therefore, Marin also needs a guise to divert others' attention. Just like Marin's previous establishment of a large whiskey distillery in Newcastle, it will divert everyone's attention.
Newcastle is a traditional salt-boiling base, because it is rich in coal and is surrounded by the sea. It is best to attract everyone's attention.
However, according to Old Mason's report, most of the salt-boiling merchants in Newcastle had fled to the southern region due to the war. After all, Newcastle was too close to Scotland. This caused the local salt-boiling industry to be depressed, leaving only a small number of small retail investors who were still insisting on cooking salt. Old Mason knew the huge profits of the salt business. In England, salt might not be much, but it would be a lot of money to transport it to Germany. If it was transported to the Baltic region, it would be even more profitable.
At the beginning, Marin asked Duke John II of Cliffer to represent his own de-branded salt, which made a lot of money. How could Old Mason, as Prime Minister, not know about this? However, John II never told Old Mason that the salt was provided by Marin. After all, this profitable business was monopolized by the Lamarck family where John II was located, and even Prime Minister Old Mason could not interfere.
Although he failed to intervene, the huge profits of old Mason were clear. So, seeing some local retail investors in Newcastle set up a big pot on the beach to cook salt with coal chunks, he immediately realized the profits. After examining the price of coal, he was shocked by the calculation - Damn, is it too profitable? So, he immediately wrote a report and applied to cook salt in the local area. You must know that as the prime minister, if the local salt cooking industry develops, he can make a lot of money by just one hand...
...
However, while Marin approved the request of Old Mason to cook salt with coal at the beach, he did not let Old Mason take charge of the matter alone. Otherwise, this guy would definitely be overwhelmed.
Therefore, Marin decided to ask Kohler to send several spies who were proficient in calculations to Newcastle to monitor Old Mason's management of Newcastle's salt cooking industry to prevent Old Mason from eating too fat.
Marin does not object to his subordinates to gain some benefits, but if he makes too much, Marin will not be happy. Therefore, for every profit-making industry, Marin will arrange spies to supervise to avoid losing control.
...
Moreover, based on this incident, Malin suddenly remembered the salt and iron specialty of ancient China...
How to say that the policy of salt and iron is a great thing for the court, and it can greatly increase tax revenue. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, the annual salt tax was as high as one million taels of silver, and the maximum was 2.5 million taels of silver a year, which was almost comparable to land tax.
In fact, this was the consequence of the serious corruption of the civil servant system of the Ming Dynasty. The price of salt in the Ming Dynasty was as high as 300 cents per kilogram, but in fact, the court only collected three or four cents of silver (one qian is equivalent to 100 cents) per kilogram of salt, which was only 2 cents per kilogram of salt. The price of salt was as high as 300 cents... In other words, the huge price difference in the middle was divided by the bureaucratic group... No wonder the Ming Dynasty court was poor, but the officials were so rich...
In contrast, the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty had a high tax on salt, reaching 30 cigarettes per kilogram (6 cigarettes in the Qing Dynasty), but the price of salt was 50 cigarettes per kilogram. In other words, in the middle, officials and merchants did not make much profit. Unlike the Ming Dynasty, salt was sold for monopoly, and the benefits were all taken away by bureaucrats. The court received only 2 cigarettes per kilogram of salt, which was simply a beggar...
Even the Qing Dynasty claimed to hand over salt to private enterprises, the tax was more than 6 liters per catty, which was three times that of the Ming Dynasty. If the Ming Dynasty controlled the salt tax, even if the price of the Qing Dynasty's salt tax was used, there would be no shortage of money. It can be said that this dynasty was eaten up by the bureaucratic class...
You should know that the Qing Dynasty's salt tax is 6 cigarettes per catty and the salt price is more than 20 cigarettes. But you can see the history of the salt merchants in Yangzhou. There are many big salt merchants with a wealth of millions of taels, and the richest ones can reach tens of millions of taels.
This is not a super salt merchant that monopolizes the country, but just a salt merchant in Yangzhou. It can be seen how profitable the salt industry is.
Even in the later years of the Chinese New China era, the official had been operating salt for a long time, and it was not until Malin traveled through time that it was released in small quantities. China Salt Company's annual turnover reached tens of billions of dollars, but I don't know how much tax it pays every year. After all, such a monopoly group also has many related households.
Just like a girl from Petrochemical, whom Marin met in later generations, once said, although Petrochemical's annual turnover is close to 300 billion US dollars, Petrochemical has as many as 810,000 employees, and everyone's annual salary starts with more than 100,000 yuan (the salary is only 30,000 or 5,000 yuan. When you check the salary list, it is very cold, but the bonus is much higher than the salary. Basically, everyone earns more than 100,000 yuan a year, as long as they are formal employees). This is just a normal income, not including the gray income of some people... So, don't think that Petrochemical is a pig who can make money as a boss, and most of the money earned is used to fill in the pit. Moreover, the 810,000 employees are still on-the-job, not including those who have retired for decades...
...
Marin knew that the salt monopoly system might be unfavorable to the people, but it was beneficial to the rulers themselves. Therefore, he also decided to sell salt monopoly. However, he did not intend to recruit too many idle people in the company, nor did he intend to give employees a high bonus. Because if you spend money on these idle people, you will get less. Of course, you don’t want to get the money yourself. After all, for Marin, money is no longer a problem. However, this money is all fiscal revenue, which can be used to build infrastructure or to support the army. In short, it is much better than raising idle people.
Therefore, after approving Lao Mason, Marin signed another document, ordering the establishment of Beihai Salt Industry Company to uniformly manage the production and sale of salt in the territory of Marin, such as Beihai Country and Northumberland County. As for the current retail investors who boil salt in Newcastle, Marin decided to learn from the way that PetroChina and Sinopec deal with those retail gas stations in the future - acquisition...
Marin would offer a relatively reasonable price, buy out the equipment of the salt-boiling workers, and even give a high price. However, from then on, they will not be allowed to sell salt again.
How to control those retail investors who cook salt secretly after they cook salt? Marin also has his own big move - he also ordered the establishment of Beihai Coal Company and implemented a coal franchise system. Without coal supply, these retail investors could not make any waves. The cost of chopping wood and cooking salt is not low, and it is unlucky to be caught...
Moreover, for Newcastle's coal mines, Marin also implemented a purchase system and bought all the ownership of the coal mine. From then on, coal will be supplied by one. Moreover, it is prohibited from flowing into the country from other places (not only Newcastle has coal in the UK). In this way, through the exclusive sale of salt and coal, Marin can firmly grasp a very profitable industrial chain in his own hands...
As for whether coal franchise makes money, Malin is not worried. Because he has a killer weapon - honeycomb coal technology...
All Chinese who have experienced the 20th century have seen the era when urban residents burn honeycomb coal stoves. Before the era of gas and natural gas, urban residents in China, including many rural residents, liked to burn honeycomb coal stoves. This application alone can make money from coal mines and have no worries about coal sales.
If it weren't for the irritation of John II of Cliff, Marin would have planned to take out the honeycomb coal technology immediately. After all, you just changed the Ruhr territory with someone and then introduced the honeycomb coal technology. Isn't it obvious that it's a scam? So Marin plans to take out the honeycomb coal technology in a few years. Otherwise, John II would be pissed to death...
Moreover, now, because there is no honeycomb coal technology, and even Europe does not even have the technology to shake coal balls, the value of coal mines is not valued. Marin can take the opportunity to buy all coal mines at a low price in the name of Beihai Coal Company. After the honeycomb coal technology comes out, he can make money by relying on exclusive monopoly...
Chapter completed!