The main reason why Marin was able to process a lot of the stale grain to the Spaniards was because of the suspension of spirits production this year......

In the past few years, the North Sea Kingdom has been in full swing and has produced too many spirits. After all, the North Sea country produces so much grain that it can make wine vigorously. But the problem is that spirits are so expensive, and the market capacity is limited......

In this era, the price of grain in Europe was extremely expensive, and the spirits made from grain were naturally also expensive. However, Europe in this era was poor. Especially in Eastern Europe, where spirits are the most popular, that is, the poor areas of the poor......

And the richest part of Italy, where people don't like spirits, only wine...... So, after producing a lot of spirits at full power, the spirits are now somewhat unsalable.

After the spirits were unsold, the brewery under the name of Marin in the North Sea Country was full of oak barrels full of spirits. Fortunately, spirits are not afraid of spoilage after expiration, and even the longer the better. Otherwise, Marin would not have had time to cry. This is also the reason why Marlin chose to mass-produce the second pot head instead of the beer in large quantities - the second pot head is resistant to preservation...... Beer, on the other hand, can only be stored for 6 months, even if it is a shelf-stable cooked beer. Draft beer, on the other hand, can only be kept for a few days......

What the? You say spirits are hard to sell in Western Europe? For this, Marin has long been prepared to countermeasure - as long as there is an order, it can be blended on the spot. With a strong two-pot head, with boiled water and maple syrup, the "royal salute" of about 20 degrees is blended on the spot. Then, using the canning process, the packaged "Royal Salute" is steamed and boiled, and it can be sold as a high-quality aristocratic liquor......

Originally, the Beihai Distillery could also continue to brew Erguotou. Anyway, the second pot head is not afraid of being stored for a long time. But the problem is that it seems that the brewery in Beihai Country has too much rye second-pot head. Even the oak barrels for the wine are not enough......

Coupled with last year's poor harvest, Marin simply suspended production at the Beihai State Distillery this year. It just so happened that there was a batch of old grain left. Seeing that Spain was short of food, he gave it to the other party as a favor. Of course, it was not given for nothing. Although the price is not high, it is old grain, and it will almost deteriorate after next year...... It just so happened that Spain made a lot of money because of its monopoly on the spice trade in India, and Marin now needed a lot of money. Then, the two sides hit it off......

However, Marin did not know that at this time in the royal palace of Toledo, Ferdinand II and his son Juan III were discussing a major issue of coinage......

Juan III and the queen looked at each other and said:

"Father, I have consulted with Margaret, and I have decided to use the cheap copper ingots imported from India to mint an additional batch of Malawi copper coins......"

Ferdinand II frowned and said:

"Juan, I know that there is a huge profit to be made from cheap Indian copper coinage. But the problem is that most countries in Europe don't recognize copper coins now. They want gold and silver! No matter how many copper coins you mint out of Spain, no one will admit it! ”

Juan III glanced at his wife and said confidently:

"It's nothing, it's a big deal, we're going to use the newly minted copper coins only for the domestic market. Then, copper coins are exchanged for gold and silver coins from the private sector for international trade! Apparently, he had discussed this issue with the queen and had a mature idea.

"And how much are you going to mint?"

"Let's start with 3.4 million, which is worth exactly 100,000 riyals (1 riyal = 34 malawi days)! When more copper comes back from India next time, I'm going to mint 34 million Malawi copper coins......"

"Poof-" Ferdinand II squirted out a sip of tea. However, there was no one in front of him, but he didn't spray anyone.

"Ahem—you have a lot of appetite......"

Juan III smiled:

"It was also Marin who inspired me, and since he gave us the right to trade in spices, he has always sent ships to follow our fleet to India. Although he could only buy tens of thousands of pounds of spices, his ships procured a lot of saltpeter and copper ingots from India every time. In addition, the North Sea Kingdom has also issued a lot of copper coins. The price of copper in India is several times cheaper than in Europe, and we mint copper coins with Indian copper, and the profit is very high! It's just that I've seen the copper coins of Beihai Kingdom, and their copper coins are very shiny, and they look a bit like gold coins, and I don't know how they did it......"

Of course, he didn't know that the copper coined in the North Sea Kingdom was zinc brass, and the Europeans didn't know what zinc was, so how could they mint that kind of copper coin that looked like a gold coin?

At the behest of Juan III, the Royal Mint of Toledo began to strike the 1513 Malawi copper coins day and night.

In fact, the issue of coinage has been discussed for a long time between Juan III and Margaret of Austria. Margaret of Austria was a woman of great vision, and he believed that copper coins would certainly be an indispensable part of trade in the future. Because, it is too inconvenient to trade with silver coins. Ordinary people only earn a little silver coin or two for a day's work. However, some small commodities cannot be found when bought with silver coins...... Therefore, bartering is still widely practiced among the people......

After marrying into Spain, Margaret of Austria was surprised to find that the Malawi copper coins made by the Spaniards seemed to be very useful in private trade. At least, it works very well in the small commodity trade. Although copper coins for bulk trade in goods are too bulky, they are very convenient for small commodity trade.

What makes Austria's Margaret even more tempted is that if she buys copper ingots from India, it seems that the cost can be reduced several times. Minting a Malawi copper coin from Indian copper can earn several times the seigniorage profit......

In addition to this, Margaret of Austria also discovered a serious problem - every time the Spanish fleet went to India to buy spices, it spent a lot of gold and silver. In the long run, Spain's domestic gold and silver will be insufficient. Even if you can use spices to earn gold and silver from European countries, then there will be less and less gold and silver in Europe...... Eventually, there will be a money shortage in Europe......

So, Margaret of Austria encouraged her husband, Juan III, to promote low-cost Indian copper coins in Spain. The currency minted with copper ingots in India was used to make up for the shortage of currency in the domestic market and avoid a shortage of money in Spain.

Moreover, she has a long-term plan - to have all of Europe accept copper coins, and accept Spanish copper coins......

In fact, she wanted to advise her father, Maximilian I, to promote copper coins in Austria and the Netherlands. However, Maximilian I and Prince Philip were concerned about this. Mainly, I am afraid that no one will accept Zhu early when he comes out.

Therefore, Queen Margaret simply suggested that her husband increase the issuance of Malawi copper coins in Spain. On the one hand, take advantage of the low cost of Indian copper to make a huge profit from coinage. On the other hand, the Malawi copper coins were fully distributed in the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Naples. Then, spread out to the entire Italian peninsula. Then, it affected the German region......

When the Germans accepted the copper coins, her impoverished father, Emperor Maximilian I, would be able to mint them to alleviate the poverty of the Habsburgs. After all, there are still quite a lot of copper mines in Austria. Although many were mortgaged to the Fugger family, the Habsburgs and the Fugger family cooperated and could still make a lot of profit by minting copper coins. If you really can't, you can also buy some cheap Indian copper through Spain's relationship and mint copper coins to save the emergency......

Even, at the instigation of Queen Margaret, Juan III wrote a letter to Marin, asking Marin if he accepted the Spanish copper coin as a means of payment for grain......

When Marin received the letter, he almost vomited out a mouthful of old blood - Nima, do you think I don't know that you just bought a boatload of copper ingots from India? Let me accept your copper coins? You're beautiful......

Therefore, Marin wrote directly back to Juan III. Of course, the letter also said that he would not accept Spanish copper coins this time unless Spain was willing to supply Merino sheep openly, and only this time...... In addition to this, Marin also demanded that the collected Malawi copper coins could be used to buy Merino sheep......