Chapter 4： Meat cheap wheat expensive

Marlin looked left and right, and found no rope to tie the red deer. In desperation, he had to pull out the green grass on the side and began to weave the straw rope at the scene. Speaking of which, there are not many young people who know how to make straw ropes, even in rural areas in the future. Because later generations of commerce are too developed, a variety of nylon fiber and other materials are sold in large quantities in the rope store, which is not only cheaper but also better in quality than straw rope. Therefore, everyone went directly to buy chemical fiber ropes.

Marin was also bored in his previous life. When he was bored and a lonely old man who loved making straw ropes and straw shoes in the village when he was bored, he learned the skills of knitting straw ropes and straw shoes. Then, it came in handy today ...

Marin tied the red deer's neck with a braided straw rope, and then caught the red deer's front leg and pulled the red deer out of the trap. Next, Marin held the war horse in his left hand and the red deer in his right hand. He couldn't stop competing with the red deer who wanted to run away, dragging the red deer to the nearest city ...

The city closest to Marin at this time was the city of Bonn under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Cologne, which is the Bonn in the West German capital. It took Marin a long time to pull the red deer out of Bonn. But at the gate, he was stopped ...

It turned out that in ancient Europe, entering the city was subject to city tax. The entry tax is not high, as long as two empires Finney (theoretically Finney and Penny are equivalent). The problem is, Marin is now penniless!

In desperation, Marin had to inquire about the trading market outside the city and walked to a market outside the city. You know, these two Finnies are also quite impressive for the poor, almost equivalent to a day's wages. In order to save entry taxes, some people simply set up stalls somewhere outside the city.

Of course, local officials are not stupid. Are you setting up a stall outside the city? OK, I can draw a market for you. However, people who set up stalls in the market must pay the stall tax, just like in the city.

As for buyers, they do not have to pay taxes. However, this is also conditional. That is, the stall outside the city must be a small business. If your business is growing and you want to set up a stall outside the city to save entry taxes, the tax officer will bring the sheriff to your trouble.

Generally speaking, the stalls outside the city sell some cheap materials needed by the rural people. For example, agricultural tools, coarse cloth, needlework, and so on. As for the high-priced and tight supplies such as salt, although the rural people also need it, officials are absolutely not allowed to sell it at markets outside the city. Because this will affect their tax collection. Of course, too far from the city, ordinary people can also buy it at the market once every 5 days. But there are also tax officials at the fair, which keeps a close eye on businessmen.

Marin came to the humble market outside the city, naturally not to sell red deer. Because there is no big buyer outside the city. He came here to get the city tax.

After thinking about it, Marin felt that he must not sell the war horse and armor. But to get the city tax, you have to come up with something.

I think about it, only the short knife on my body can be sold. This short knife is used by Marin for survival in the wild, and it can also be used as a dagger to defend itself. The quality seems very good. But Marin was hungry now. After eating grass roots for two days, he saw that some people at the market were selling black stick bread that could be used as bricks. So, he decided to get the entry tax quickly, and then sold the red deer so that he could eat a normal meal.

In his heart, Marin's short knife is of good quality. After all, this is for the knights, who may have to pull out a short knife and work hard when the knight loses his riding rifle. Therefore, the quality of this short knife is generally good.

But now Marin can't control that much, and he can't afford to sell it for a good price. So, this fine short knife worth 20 Finneys was sold to a butcher by Marin with 8 Finneys.

With the entrance fee, Marin happily led the war horse and red deer to the city. But what made him depressed was that his entry tax required four Finneys. The reason is that the red deer he led was a "bulk cargo" and he had to pay some taxes ...

In fact, if it wasn't for the face of Marin being a knight with martial arts, the soldiers in the city might have asked 20 Finneys or even sky-high prices.

Moreover, ordinary people hunting even need the permission of the lord. If a civilian hunted a large animal in the territory without permission, he might be executed by the lord.

I also only have wandering knights like Marin. Because the wandering knights are a group of masters who dare to kill for their lives. Their martial arts are so strong that ordinary lords dare not mess with them. Moreover, many of the wandering knights have old friends and relatives, which has provoked them and has no good fruit. The soldiers who defend the city are only lowly infantry, how dare to offend the knight?

It is said that a few years ago, a baron killed a stray knight who hunted in his territory without authorization. Then, two months later, a family of stray knights came to a group of knights and killed the baron. He also ransacked the baron's estate. The baron's family brought the matter to the imperial court and did not solve it. Although the baron ranks higher than the revenge cavalier knight (the deceased's father), others can take revenge for his son. In addition, the baron killed a knight in order to hunt for prey, it was indeed too much. Therefore, this matter is so forgotten, in the end, only the revenge returned the stolen property.

Since then, ordinary lords have taken it as a warning and are not willing to provoke stray knights. As long as they do not rely on hunting in their own territory for a long time, they generally do not care about it. Even if they find out, they just send people to drive away, not as fierce as the civilians. Because these wandering knights themselves, or their families, may be thugs of martial arts ...

Of course, if a large wild animal is hunted like Marin, if the local lord knows it, he may send his knights to ask for it. However, the spread of medieval news was extremely backward, and communication basically relied on roar. When the local lord heard of the news and sent someone to recover, maybe three or two days passed. And Marin is a hurried passenger, where can I find it? Even if it is found, it is useless. After all, the thief wants to catch the stolen goods, and if they don't hold it on the spot, they will sell their prey. Who will admit it then? Unless, Marin is greedy and stays here for a long time hunting, giving people the opportunity to catch thieves and loot ...

I finally entered the city, and Marin hurried into the city. After a long time, I finally found a restaurant that was willing to buy this red deer. But the price made Marin so depressed that he vomited blood ...

Why are you here? The restaurant owner turned out to pay only 4 fennie a pound of venison for the red deer. Moreover, the meat production rate is 50%. In other words, the owner of this venison is only willing to pay 800 fennies. In addition, because you can get very complete deer skin and decorative by-products such as antlers, deer bones can also be used for soup. So, the boss promised to pay another 300 Finnies. In other words, such a big red deer can only sell 1,100 Finneys ...

According to Marin Huffman's memory, each pound of wheat is currently worth 5 fennies (this price will rise sharply after the "price revolution" began in the 16th century, and by the 17th century, it will almost reach one or two Shillings are even higher. However, meat prices seem to have remained relatively stable). Even less valuable rye is worth 1 Finney per pound. In other words, a pound of venison is not as expensive as a pound of wheat ...

林 Marin, who came from later generations, is completely Spartan ...

You know, in modern times, the price of a pound of wheat is a little more than one piece, and venison, at least 20 to a few pounds. This is still venison raised, if wild venison, it must be dozens. In other words, the price of modern venison is at least a dozen times that of wheat. But in medieval Europe, wheat was more expensive than venison, and Marin was shocked.

In fact, Marin also has short-sightedness. You know, this is the Middle Ages. The current German region (excluding Hungary and other regions, but including many regions in later Poland, as well as the Netherlands and parts of France, about 5.6 million square kilometers), has a population of less than 10 million. Later Germany, with a population of 350,000 square kilometers, had a population of 80 million.

Therefore, the current German region is still relatively large and sparsely populated. Like the Rhine and the southern mountains, there are currently plenty of forests. In the forest, wild deer, wild sheep, hare, and even bison ... There are actually many such wild animals, which are enough for people to hunt and eat.

It is not just the German region. At present, the whole of Europe is sparsely populated and there are many wild animals. As long as you have a musket or are good at using crossbows, then you can definitely hunt for prey often, without meat, and sell it (provided you have the qualifications to hunt).

At the same time, medieval agriculture in Europe was so low that it was not suitable for the Ming Dynasty to raise shoes. Wheat yield per mu in Europe is better than in Italy, which can reach 150 kg to 200 kg per mu. In other regions, the wheat yield per mu is generally around 100 kg. Of course, this is also related to the current climate. After all, this era is a "little ice age" and the temperature is low. But more reasons are the extremely low cultivation skills of Europeans. They didn't know how to fertilize, and the ploughs for arable land were backward.

For example, Huaxia began to use the advanced and labor-saving Qulong plow in the Tang Dynasty. In this era, there were only two ploughs in Europe-Saxon heavy ploughs and ordinary light ploughs. The disadvantages of light ploughing are obvious-its shallow tillage depth can only cut away the top soil, and the effect is very poor. The Saxon heavy plow works well. But it was too bulky and required several horses to pull together.

(European horses are large in size and strong in strength, which is very suitable for pulling horses. Therefore, horse farming has been popular in Europe, and cattle are relatively rare, and many cattle are raised as dairy or beef cattle)

But in Europe, how many ordinary horses can there be? Obviously impossible. Therefore, Saxony heavy plow, only those nobles and rich households can afford. Poor little landowners are generally not able to afford Saxon heavy plows.

No manure application, shallow tillage. This has resulted in generally low agricultural production in Europe, leading to high food prices. In contrast, because there are many wild animals in the wild, and Europeans themselves graze extensively, the source of meat is very rich, which also led to low European meat prices in this era.

According to Marin Huffman's memory, at this time beef was only 4 fennies a pound, while mutton and pork were only 3 fennies a pound. In other words, the cost of meat is lower than that of wheat bread ...

Of course, rye is cheaper than meat. Therefore, poor people generally eat rye, dirt, wood chips, stones, and wild vegetables and other "casting" (why to say casting? Because such black bread can kill people and can be used directly as bricks, it is called the medieval " Nokia ").

Even the Huffman family, who are knights, usually eat black bread. UU Kanshu only extravagantly eats white bread made of wheat flour on major holidays. Of course, the black bread eaten by the Huffman family is not the same as the brown bread eaten by the poor. At least, the black bread eaten by the Huffman family is not so hard and does not contain soil and other things.

Thinking of this, Marin burst into tears:

"I didn't expect that medieval wheat was more expensive than meat! Specially, I used to look through the novel and thought the author was bragging. I didn't expect it to be so!"

Before crossing, Marin has seen many novels that traveled to ancient Europe. For example, a novel mentioned that after the 17th century in Europe, the price of wheat was expensive, reaching a few pounds per quart (12.7 kg). To this end, the protagonist also made a lot of money by using modern agricultural technology to farm ...

"Well, it seems that I have to find a way to grow wheat to get rich!" After all, Marin is a purely rural child who is no stranger to farming.

But the problem is, first of all, you have to have land! In this age of feudal lords, even if you have money, you may not be able to buy good land. Even if you buy a good land, if the real wheat makes a fortune, the Lord Lord may be jealous and come to rob ... After all, in the Middle Ages, the world of the Lord, the people were the Emperor, and the land was owned by the Lord ...

Therefore, after thinking about it, Marin still felt that it was better to turn to Emperor Maximilian I first. First fight for the emperor, then fight for victory and gain a fiefdom. And then, with the fiefdom, when he became the lord, he recruited serfs, used modern agricultural technology to produce wheat, and became a medieval tyrant ...

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