Chapter 256： British coal imports

With the efforts of the old foundry artisan John and his assistants, great progress has finally been made. Marin told Gong Zhenlin's iron mold casting method in memory and told the old John that the old John took someone to start trying.

In fact, the specific approach is simple to say, but some details need to be taken seriously. For example, in the original iron mold casting gun method, the first layer of paint on the inner wall of the mold is a mixture of fine rice husk ash and fine sand and water, and after drying, it is dried.

Europe except southern Europe, only wheat and no rice in the northern half. So, the old John had to find the husk ash instead. In addition, specific proportions, how to make the most convenient peeling gun barrel, also need to be tested. As for the second layer of coal ash, this thing is easy to find, just go and get it on Texel Island. Marin especially emphasized that after the two layers of paint are brushed, they must be dried to ensure that there is no moisture. Otherwise, when molten iron or copper is poured, water vapor will easily evaporate, forming a honeycomb inside the gun body.

Old John led people to try many times, and finally mastered the method of casting iron cannon. Of course, when he mastered the iron mold casting method, that is when he went to freedom. From then on, if he wanted to return to Britain, it would be almost impossible. However, his treatment has improved a lot. It can be regarded as compensation for freedom ...

Old John's experiments have always used pig iron. Seeing that pig iron turned into artillery so quickly, Old John also proposed to use iron to cast a three-pound cannon. However, Marin asked him to put a lot of gunpowder in the gun barrel. After a trial explosion, he found that the gunpowder at the critical point of the original mud mold gun was used to burst the gun tube. In other words, the iron cannon cast by the iron mold cannon is relatively brittle.

However, there is no problem in casting bronze guns using the iron mold casting method. The detection effect of the bronze gun cast by the iron mold casting method is similar to that of the bronze gun cast by the mud mold casting method.

However, the mud mold casting method can only dry the mud mold for at least a month. In rainy weather, the air drying time is more than 3 months. Therefore, mud mold casting cannons are very inefficient. Iron mold casting cannons, a group of artisans, can cast several doors in a day, which is very fast.

After the method of casting guns was determined, Old John and his apprentices began to "burst out" and quickly produce three-pound bronze guns ...

Moreover, under the guidance of Marin, these new three-pound bronze guns not only added the same ears as the French, but also left behind the place where the recommended sight was mounted-Wangshan. The so-called Wangshan, the knight is a very simple thing. It is a copper ruler perpendicular to the barrel. However, there is a round hole in the middle of the copper ruler, allowing the gunner's eyes to aim at the target through the round hole. The circular holes and the barrel are oriented in parallel. Seeing the target through the round hole is equivalent to the barrel facing the target.

In addition, Marin also instructed the blacksmiths to build enough open caster gun mounts that would be popular in later generations. This gun mount has a simple structure, light weight, convenient transportation, and easy use. In use, two metal "back feet" lie on the ground. Generally speaking, without modification, the muzzle is forward. If you want to pursue the shooting angle, you can set the wheel up, so that the rear foot can be lowered, so that the muzzle can be raised. Moreover, there are "foot nails" under the soles of the two metal "back feet". In this way, although the artillery vehicle receded because of recoil, the "shoe spikes" under the "rear feet" rubbed the ground, so that the artillery vehicle could not retreat too hard to facilitate resetting.

I saw that the manufacture of the three-pound gun was on the right track, and Marin was naturally happy. But it wasn't long before he was happy, and there were hands to destroy the atmosphere:

"Master, Texel came to the newspaper, saying that a ship of briquettes had been detained by the Duchy of Gerdes ..."

"What? Why is this?" Marin was a little aggressive, didn't Charles II ally with him? Why buckle his coal ship?

"Because the Geders tax official believes that we have too many coal carriers on the Rhine, but we have not paid the transit duty to Geders Principality ..."

"Haven't you paid it before? Why are you talking about it now?" In the past, Marin's coal carrier sailed directly in the middle of the Rhine. He never stepped aside, paid no taxes to anyone, and stopped the coal ship. .

Yancoal ships mainly pass through the countries of Mark, the Bishop of Münster, the Principality of Berg, the Principality of Cliff, the Principality of Gerdes and the Zeeland at the mouth of the Rhine. Among them, the period after the Duchy of Berg was relatively short, and the period for the Bishop of Munster was not too long. Moreover, these two countries are relatively modest and have never set up roads on the river.

However, Zeeland is actually an area controlled by the Habsburgs. Marin once sent someone to say hello, and naturally it will not be difficult.

Only the Duchy of Gerdes, Charles II needed a lot of taxes because of his ambition. Therefore, Charles II, Duke of Gerdes, tried his best to levy taxes on ships passing by rivers in the country. Rather, the Principality of Gerdes is located in the most important section of the mouth of the Rhine. Therefore, if you want to use the Rhine transport to the sea, the Duchy of Gerdes can't get around.

Even though Marin formed an alliance with Charles II, he did not tell Charles II to make a fortune using coal to cook salt. Moreover, it cannot be said that others will imitate it.

In the past, the scale of boiled salt on Texel was not too noticeable. However, since Marin opened the salt trade routes of the Teutonic Order, the salt production on Texel has begun to double.

盐 Double the amount of salt produced, then the amount of coal required will also double. Therefore, Marin increased the intensity of coal transportation. In this way, many coal carriers belonging to Marin appeared on the Rhine.

After all, ships can't be too big for inland water transportation. If you want to transport so much coal, you can only increase the number of coal ships. Generally speaking, an inland watercraft carries at most one or two hundred tons of coal, and more often, a boat carrying more than ten tons or dozens of tons of coal ...

Suddenly the number of ships suddenly increased, and the form was similar, which attracted the attention of the Duchy of Gerdes. Earlier, the Principality of Gerdes also levied taxes on docked ships. However, Marin's ships all go in the middle of the river and are generally not taxed. However, this time, the tax official of the Principality of the River Dukes of the Principality, specially organized several ships full of soldiers, intercepted one of the boats carrying dozens of tons of coal, and demanded to pay additional taxes ...

In fact, the Principality, the tax official responsible for cruising the river, did not know how much tax the coal ship owed. In fact, he didn't care how much it was, he just came to extort ... even, the tax officer just wanted to swallow it alone ...

Marin frowned when she learned of the situation. Before, he let coal carriers go in the middle of the river, not just to evade taxes. Among them, there is a bigger reason to be unobtrusive.

Because once the tax is paid normally, it won't cost much. However, your trade secrets will be disclosed through taxation.

For example, if the coal ships passing the Principality of Gerdes are paying taxes, it is bound to expose the amount of coal that Marin transports to Texel Island. This amount is very large, and other people know the transportation volume, and they will ask questions-why is there so much coal in Texel? Then, interested people will investigate. Upon investigation, Marin's wealth from cooking and selling salt will be exposed.

Once this happens, it will be difficult for Marin to guarantee that other coastal countries will imitate the handwriting. In addition, it is too easy for the Dutch to imitate themselves. Maximilian I was also very interested in money. Moreover, knowing that you are rich, and several vassal countries along the way, you will inevitably extort yourself a little toll ...

So Marin has a headache for this matter ...

Marlin is obviously unwilling to reveal his wealth secretly, and the profit will be the biggest only when the family is exclusive. However, to transport coal from the Ruhr area to Texel, only the Rhine can travel. It would be better to go by water than by land. Not to mention the high cost of land travel, land tax must pass through those tax cards, which is easier to expose than water travel. Unless, no more coal is imported from Ruhr ...

嗯 "Hmm? Don't you import coal from the Ruhr area?" Marin's eyes suddenly lighted ...

Western Europe is mainly on the two major coal-producing regions-the Ruhr region and the United Kingdom. There are also some coal mines in other areas, but they are not large enough.

The best way to avoid importing coal from the Ruhr area is to import coal from the UK ...

British coal prices Marin has also explored, in London, for each Charteron coal sold about 6 shillings. But in the output port of Newcastle, as long as 4 shillings did not have Charteron. This is still because of the high prices in the UK. If you replace it with the Ruhr area, the market price of the export coal area will be 3 shillings per Charteron. Marin bought coal from his own coal mine, only 2 shillings per charloton.

However, Marin's profit is still very large even if the coal boiled salt is purchased at the price of 4 shillings per Charteron. After all, cooking salt is a huge profit, and Marin also uses a cooking tool such as a wood-saving stove.

After much thought, Marin finally decided to reduce the amount of coal imported from his hometown to the previous level. This level is not too noticeable. In addition, Marin also decided to stop using small coal carriers and use large coal carriers. In this way, the number of coal transports can be reduced and become less noticeable.

Then sent someone to Newcastle, the UK's coal export port, to order large quantities of coal. Newcastle is just northwest of Texel, across the sea. Although, the straight line is definitely farther than Bochum. UU reading books www. uukanshu.com But Newcastle is by the sea and a harbour. The coal ship leaving Newcastle must be a sea ship. Sea vessels have a large loading capacity and can transport a lot of coal at a time, which is beneficial to reducing transportation costs.

Moreover, marine transportation can also be easily kept secret for Marin. Because as long as the ship leaves the harbor, God knows where it is going ...

Marlin can order large quantities of coal in Newcastle on behalf of other countries. Then, they are transported to Texel and boiled for salt. Even though Newcastle coal is a bit more expensive, it is nothing compared to the huge profits of boiling salt and the importance of confidentiality ...

Thinking of this, Marin finally made up his mind. He brought Kohler:

"Koller, you send someone to bribe money first to redeem our coal ship ..."

After listening to Marin's explanation, Cole shook his head and said:

"Master, this kind of trivial matter, you don't need to let me go?" Indeed, it's just a redemption of an individual, and he can do whatever he wants.

当然 "Of course it's not that simple, you know, our coal carrier was intercepted for the first time. As far as I know, this is the personal behavior of the river cruiser. Others don't know ...

"what do you mean?"

"Let the tax officer be in an accident ... Besides, wait for the redeemer after a while and don't let people associate the two things ... In short, don't be noticeable ..." Marin didn't want The secret of making your own salt and getting rich is exposed. If everyone knew how to cook salt with coal and learned from him, then the salt price would surely plummet immediately, which would seriously harm Marin's interests. So, the troubled river cruiser, Marin could only shut him up ...

"I see, I'll arrange it!" Kohler immediately left the palace, and arranged for people to redeem and "make an accident" ...