Chapter 80: Winter Wheat

Chapter 80: Winter Wheat

The days after the Harvest, how to sell off the excess foodstuff was also an important matter for the island.

Excluding the 200 morgens of rye from the church, the 2800 morgens of ryefields owned by Marin and his underlings (another 200 morgens was used to plant oatwheat), yielded a total of 8.4 million pounds of rye.

However, there was only a population of 6000 on the island, even if the average yearly consumption per capita was 500 pounds of rye, they would only need 3 million pounds, and there was still an excess of 5.4 million pounds.

Marin thought about it for a moment, he decided to set aside 5 million pounds and sell that. Each pound of rye was worth 1 pfennig, 5 million pounds was worth 5 million pfennigs, after conversion, that was about 83 thousand gold ducats and more.

Originally, Marin intended to sell that to the Wiggins Merchant Association. However, Kohler who had experience roaming the country and had broad knowledge told Marin that the price of foodstuffs in Europe was very unbalanced.Updated from novelb(i)n.c(o)m

Kohler had once heard a Jewish merchant say, the price of foodstuff in Europe was the cheapest in Eastern Europe. Lviv of Poland (now belonging to Ukraine), because the black soil (chernozem) produced large quantities of foodstuff, the price of rye was just 0.5 pfennigs per pound; while in Deutschland it was 1 pfennigs per pound; in the England area, it was 1.5 pfennigs (penny) per pound; France areas were similar to Deutschland; but Spain at the same time had a high price for wheats. Rumor has it, the price of rye around Barcelona reached prices as high as 2 pfennigs per pound, while the price of wheat reached an even higher price of 10 pfennigs per pound.

The Italy area was originally a major producer of crops. But due to war and conflict over the past two years, the prices of food had also soared, and was comparable with Spain

Which also means, if they ship these rye to Spain, they would gain much more profits. Although that was the plan, but Marin was starting to feel depressed. Because he did not own a ship for long voyages

To ship the rye towards Spain, it would take a very far naval route. Not only must they be careful of the Atlantics waves, they must also be wary of pirate attacks. This period of time, the seas were not peaceful. Taking the naval route had a high risk of being targeted by pirates. Unless your ship was an armed merchantman.

However, Marin currently only owned a few small ships, so there was no way they could travel far

Due to the circumstances, Marin endured the pain, and decided to sell the wheat to England as usual. England was quite close to Texel, being only several hundred kilometers away. Although Marin did not own a large boat, but he could hire trading vessels of a larger size to ship the wheat to England and sell it.

The prices of food in England was relatively high, the retail price of rye was 1.5 pennies per pound Even their wholesale prices was 1.2 pennies per pound. If this was sold in Deutschland, the most they could get was a wholesale price of 0.8 pfennigs per pound. Transporting them over to England, they would obtain another half of the price.

Of course, due to the trade sanctions of France towards Texel, Marin was forced to ship the foodstuff towards England without using the name of Texel.

As such, Marin specifically sent Kohler to bribe several young, destitute Jewish merchants, so they would represent and establish the North Sea Merchant Association in Amsterdam. Then, under the guise of the North Sea Merchant Association, they hired sea vessels and shipped the rye for sale towards England.

Although they were levied by the Britons with import tariffs of 6 pennies per pound, but compared to the difference in wheat prices between England and Deutschland, it really was nothing.

Europe in the Middle Ages, the farmers were used to only one planting season every year. Normally they plant in the Spring, and harvest during the Autumn. There were also winter wheat strains, but when Marin heard about the growth period of the winter wheat, he desperately wanted to curse

Because, the winter wheat in Europes Middle Ages was still planted at the end of Autumn, without a doubt, but its growth cycle was really infuriating. Because, the winter wheat in this period of Europe, although also planted in October and November, but the harvest period had to wait until July/August of the next year

While Marin clearly remembered that in his previous life, the winter Wheat was clearly harvested during May. After the harvest, they could fertilize the soil with some amount of manure, and there was still sufficient time to plant paddies. Then, during October, the paddies would be ripe for harvest

However, the terribly infuriating European winter wheat actually needed to grow for two more months compared to modern times, which was the end of Spring and start of Summer, so there wouldnt be enough time to plant anything else. By the time the winter wheat was harvested, the farmland had to be left alone for a few more months, awaiting the next sowing of winter wheat, resulting in a serious waste of farmland. However, thinking back to why the Europeans were still carrying out large-scale fallows, that amount of wastage wasnt that odd

Wheat was different than rye, in Europe, the price of wheat far surpasses that of rye. In Deutschland, the price of one pound of rye was only 1 pfennigs. While for a pound of wheat, it would be as high as 5 pfennigs. The difference in prices was as much as 5 folds. In the future, this difference would only increase, and reach 7 folds.

Wheat was different than rye, rye was much easier to take care of, and they could be treated rougher during sowing, they also did not have a high requirement for water. As for wheat, they were much more delicate than rye, the amount of irrigation they needed also surpasses that of rye.

The Europeans during the Middle Ages were more crude in their farming, normally they would just till the lands with a plow, sprinkle rye seeds, water the fields and go home. Then, they sit and wait, waiting for harvest time

The farming techniques Marin had promoted for planting rye, hole seeding, deep ploughing, weeding and fertilizing, were actually techniques used for delicate wheat. This time, the serfs were more accustomed to the procedure.

As such, when they were planting 500 morgens of winter wheat, it was smooth sailing for them. The only thing was, because they were using native breeds of Europe Middle ages, the next time they harvest the wheat would have to be the upcoming July/August, which was really a scam

However, considering the expensive price of wheat, even if they wasted one farming season, the price of wheat which was 5 times higher than rye was more than sufficient for Marin to earn way more.

But Marin was unsatisfied with just that, if they had winter wheat with a slightly faster growth cycle, Marin could still be able to plant soybeans after that. In this case, not only would Marin receive a large amount of soybean oil, he would also be able to provide better fodder than oats for the horses. Also, soybeans could fix nitrogen, which would increase the fertility of the soil. Using soil which had previously been planted with soybeans, and planting winter wheat afterwards, the soil would appear much more fertile

However, even if he wanted to obtain winter wheat strains with slower growth cycles, Europe naturally had none, neither did Marin learn about agricultural technology, so he did not know how to breed excellent wheat strains.

Thats why, he could only consider going to the Ming Dynasty of China in order to purchase winter wheat strains with faster growth cycles, as well as the versatile soybeans Thats why, the great voyage was still a great necessity.

Besides, Marin suddenly remembered that winter wheat required to be fertilized with potash. Potash fertilizers could help winter wheat endure the cold, as well as increasing the yield. In Germany, there was a rich reserve of potassium salt, at one time, Germany was still the greatest exporter of potash fertilizer. Like the Harz Mountainrange, there were several large potassium salt deposits there. Marin was starting to make calculations in his mind, whether or not he should send someone to purchase the mining rights for those potassium salt deposits, to act as his potash fertilizer reserves. After all, relying solely on plant ash as potash fertilizer, the potash content was too low