King of German Mercenaries

With the coal mines, Marin lost some interest in the reform of manor agriculture. You've already become the son of a coal boss, and you still want to be a farmer? Even if they were farming, with so little farmland at home, they wouldn't be able to make waves.

Moreover, Adler said that although he is the eldest son, he may not have the share of his younger brothers and sisters in the fields, but he is willing to share the profits of the coal mine with his younger brothers and sisters, especially Marin who unearthed the coal mine.

Adler was not a stingy person and was not stingy with money. The estate is not divided among the younger brothers, it is a family tradition. But for this coal mine, it is not ancestral. Although it is underground in the manor, if it wasn't for Marin's geological investigation on a whim, the coal mine would not have been unearthed.

Of course, Adler also said that while he was alive, the profits of the coal mine could naturally be distributed to his younger siblings, but he did not guarantee that future generations would do the same. Because, this coal mine belongs to the Hoffman family. Adler, as the next patriarch, could agree to share the coal mine benefits with his younger siblings while he was alive. But Adler's son, after becoming the new patriarch, may not be so generous.

But even so, Marin and his younger brothers and sisters can also share a lot of benefits. Even if the coal mine produced 100 chartrons a day, the Hoffmans would have netted at least 100 shillings, or 7.5 marks. 365 days a year, the Hoffman family can net at least more than 2,700 marks.

In fact, a skilled miner can dig 15 charterons a day (Newcastle, UK), and even an unskilled miner can dig seven or eight charters a day.

Then, recruiting 20 miners and digging 200 chartrons a day is no problem. The income of the Hoffman family will also double. Of course, this premise is that the Hoffman family's coal must be sold...

However, the coal of the Hoffman family is first-class coal, and it is the most suitable anthracite as fuel. Therefore, its market is at least better than ordinary coal.

Adler negotiated with the old Hoffman and was willing to give 30% of the coal mine profits to his younger brothers and sisters. Among them, Marin alone gets 10%, and the remaining 20% ​​is shared by the two younger brothers and sisters.

Of course, the vision is beautiful. However, coal mines are not necessarily profitable for a long time. Because, mining coal, the early investment is huge. For example, when recruiting miners, it is necessary to build dormitories for miners. Also build a minecart track to the dock. Then, a wharf has to be repaired so that coal ships can dock easily... Not only that, but we have to go to the city to find businessmen who are willing to distribute the Hoffman family's coal...

In order to grasp how to operate a coal mine, Malin specially went to other coal mines in the Ruhr area to investigate. Then, through some means, he got some data.

Data shows that in a typical coal mine, miners can dig about 10 charterons per day. Of course, coal mines are not just diggers, but also workers who lift coal from deep shafts on pulleys, and workers who transport coal by hand-pulled mine carts to warehouses outside the mine where it is stacked.

Generally speaking, coal diggers in the Ruhr area are currently paid 3 pfennig per day, while those responsible for hoisting coal and pulling it to the warehouse are paid 2 pfennig per day. On average, the labor cost per charteron coal from the outside to the warehouse is about 3 to 4 pfennig.

But it's more than that, because the cost of carriage of coal by horse-drawn cart is too high and the volume is small. Therefore, the general outbound transportation of coal is pulled to the wharf on the Ruhr River or the Lippe River for loading. The distance from the coal mine to the wharf depends on how far each coal mine is from the wharf. There are far distances, and it costs 4 pfennig just to transport a chardron coal from the coal mine to the wharf. Low-cost, but also one or two pfennig.

Of course, there are also very favorable conditions, such as the coal mine of Hoffmann Manor, which is only 2 kilometers away from the Ruhr River, and the transportation cost is very low.

It's more than just the cost, though. Because, digging coal to sell, the government also has to collect taxes.

The Holy Roman Empire is different from other countries. Mining in other countries is to pay taxes to the royal family. And Hoffman Manor in the territory of the Earl of Mark, it is necessary to pay a tax of 2 pfennig to the Earl of Mark for every Chartlong coal sold.

In addition, after the coal is transported out of the Country of Mark, if every time it passes through a vassal state and encounters a checkpoint, it basically has to pay a customs tariff of 1 pfennig. If you pass through multiple vassal states, you have to pay a lot of money just for taxes.

Therefore, transporting coal by ship, in addition to the low transportation cost, also has the meaning of avoiding the checkpoints on land. After all, on the big river, as long as you don't dock, few princes will send ships to chase after you to collect taxes. Taxes are collected by a tax collector only when the ship is docked. After all, this is the Middle Ages, and tax officials are also afraid of water, and dare not simply go to the river to take a bath.

And to the destination city, importing coal, but also must pay import tax and city entry tax. So, for a charteron of coal, those merchant ships will generally only give the coal boss 2 shillings per charteron. But even so, the profit of the mine owner is at least 1 shilling per chartron. And ship owners, as long as they stop at a few ports less, and after the shipment arrives at the destination, even if they sell 4 shillings per charteron, there is still a profit of more than 1 shilling.

However, this has a premise - that you have to sell the coal first. You must know that there was no industry in the Middle Ages, and most of the special needs for iron smelting and copper smelting were coal. Because these productions require the high temperature created by coal. Others, such as cooking rice and water, can use local firewood. Therefore, the market for medieval coal was small and belonged to a buyer's market.

If coal is so easy to sell, it is estimated that many people in the Ruhr area will make a fortune by selling coal, just like the later Shanxi coal bosses. Unfortunately, this era is the Middle Ages...

Marin, who has been baptized by the market economy in later generations, knows the importance of sales. So, without saying a word, he picked up the Hoffmanns and asked them to bring enough money to go to Cologne, the largest city on the Rhine.

It stands to reason that the two largest commercial cities in Germany are Hamburg and Bremen, and it will be better to go to these two places. But Marin knew that in Bochum's day there was no inland waterway to Hamburg and Bremen. Only after the opening of the Sino-German Canal in later generations can the waterway between Bochum and Bremen be opened. At present, if you want to transport coal to these two places, you must first transport it out of the mouth of the Rhine, and then transport it in a large circle from the sea to these two places. However, shipping by sea in this age is too risky. Therefore, considering safety and transportation costs, Marin felt that it would be better to find a nearby big city to sell coal.

Cologne is the largest city in the Rhine Valley. Even Vienna, the capital of the empire, is not as prosperous as Cologne. At the same time, Cologne is also the residence of the Archbishop of Cologne, one of the seven emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.

Many business activities on the Rhine are based on the city of Cologne. There are many merchants here, and many nearby vassal states will send commercial representatives to Cologne City to be responsible for purchasing goods. Therefore, coal is relatively easy to sell here.

After Marin and Hoffman came to Cologne, they found a hotel to stay. Then, Marin spent money to get some information about Cologne's business community and some businessmen he wanted to know from the innkeeper, a local.

After screening, Marin selected three well-known coal distribution managers. The reason why he chose the coal manager, not the coal merchant himself, was the truth that Marin realized when he worked in later generations. If you want to sell products to the boss of the other party, you must make the boss feel that he has made a lot of profit. But if you really want to do this, the concessions on your own side are huge, and it will be a disadvantage.

But managers are different. They only work for the boss, but they also have power. However, they themselves are only part-time workers, not the bosses themselves. Therefore, it is actually very simple to want him to purchase your goods - that is, you can bring him enough personal benefits...

Therefore, managers with purchasing authority are very popular. In later generations, many business people responsible for promoting products will often bribe these managers with purchasing authority. Of course, bribery isn't everything. There is also a premise that your goods are not too problematic, and they are not much different from other people's goods.

Marin, who knew this well, met with three managers he had chosen, and launched a big bribery move...

But what made him depressed was that the first two managers said that their coal supplier was decided by the boss himself, and they had no right to change it. So, Marin had to give up. Fortunately, the third manager has a bigger voice - he is the boss's brother-in-law...

After paying a huge bribe of 50 marks, the coal dealer's agent named Wright agreed to buy from the Hoffman family's coal mine two months later, after the contract with the previous dealer expired. Ship to load coal. Of course, the coal quality of the Hoffman family is also excellent. Although Wright was jealous of the bribe, he only accepted the bribe with confidence and signed the contract with the old Hoffman after inspecting the samples brought by Marin and proving that the quality of the Hoffman coal mine was first-class. Also, old Hoffman offered a low price—only 2 shillings per chartron. In fact, the price of first-class coal in the Ruhr area is generally 2 shillings and 3 pfennigs per charteron. Therefore, Wright chose the Hoffman coal mine, and it was not a loss at all.

After solving the sales problem, Marin and the Hoffmans rushed back to the manor. Next, is the coal mining and coal transportation link.

Under Marin's dispatch, Adler was sent to the Ruhr to oversee the construction of the coal pier. Old Hoffman was responsible for repairing the road from the coal mine to the river, and instructed the serfs to repeatedly roll the road with the stone drums invented by Marin. Mrs. Mary, on the other hand, was in charge of supervising the carpenters to build a batch of Chinese-style wheelbarrows for the shipment of coal.

Because, according to Marin’s estimation, if a 2-kilometer-long minecart track is to be built, the investment cost is too high, and the Hoffman family cannot afford the money for the time being. So, he simply decided to use a wheelbarrow and an ox cart to transport the coal first.

The bullock cart is ready-made, but there is a problem with the bullock cart. Once the road is muddy in rainy days, the bullock cart cannot run, which affects the shipment of coal. The wheelbarrow, in fact, is ready to be used in rainy days and when the road is not dry. Because, unicycles are all-terrain vehicles that can walk on grass. Moreover, the Chinese-style wheelbarrow can hold five or six hundred kilograms of goods, which is very convenient and practical.

As for Marin himself, he went out with Kahn and Kohler to those old coal mines and purchased two sets of support equipment for pulley hoisting coal trucks for hoisting coal in the mine.

After buying the equipment, Marin didn't leave immediately, but quietly sent people to contact some skilled miners in those old coal mines. With the high price of 4 pfennigs per day, he poached 5 people who were free in identity. Civilian experienced miners.

Hoffman coal mine is a new coal mine, and if all new people are used, the output may not be guaranteed. And once the output can't keep up, the old Hoffman is equivalent to defaulting, but he will lose money to Wright. So, Marin dug up 5 skilled miners. Then, Old Hoffman recruited more than a dozen sturdy serfs who had never mined coal from outside the manor, and followed five old miners to learn mining. With a master taking it, I believe that these dozen or so young men will be able to dig coal faster. Of course, some of them are also responsible for loading the coal to the wharf.

In this way, at the beginning of September, the Hoffman family's coal mine officially began to operate. At this time, the news that King Charles VIII of France led 37,000 French troops into Italy finally reached the German region.

Marin knew that His Majesty the Emperor must be anxious. Because, the emperors of all dynasties have regarded Italy as their own private land, and they are not allowed to be meddled by others, especially the strong France. Therefore, Marin also temporarily put down the family coal mining business and began to prepare, planning to go to Vienna to join the emperor...

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