Marin used 60 Kirk galleons he had stolen from Denmark to form a shipping company called the "Deutsche Union". Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 After the completion of the INFO formation, Draka, who had been in charge of trade on the Indian route, was appointed General Manager of Deutsche United Shipping Company.

After the establishment of the company, it first set its sights on the trade market in the Baltic region. Trade in the Baltic region was extremely lucrative. Although Denmark is only separated from Western Europe, the two sides are like two completely different worlds, and the price levels are completely different.

Originally, the lucrative market of the Baltic region was divided equally between two powerful forces, the Hanseatic League and the Danish Kalmar League.

However, because of Marin's intervention, the balance between the two sides was broken. The once powerful Kalmar League was wiped out of its naval fleet, and most of its merchant ships were looted. Only a small number of merchant ships docked in Norway survived because they were far from the war zone.

The Øresund Strait, which once connected the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, is now under the joint control of the fleets of Lübeck and Hamburg. Even, the taxes from the passage were taken care of by the two fleets.

In addition, in order to combat the Danish maritime power and prevent its resurgence, the fleets of the two families forbade the passage of Danish merchant ships, and only allowed fishing boats to pass.

In this way, Denmark is tantamount to a complete loss of the Baltic market......

You must know that the former Kalmar League was so strong, Lübeck and Denmark were going head-to-head, and they were definitely losing. Even if Lübeck and Hamburg were united, it would have been a loss without Marin's fleet joining.

Therefore, after the elimination of Danish maritime power, almost half of the market share in the Baltic Sea region was vacated......

Now, Lübeck and Hamburg are using the hundreds of merchant ships they have captured from Denmark to recruit sailors in order to seize the market share left by Denmark.

However, things are not so simple. First of all, the two Hanseatic cities of Lübeck and Hamburg have a limited population because they are only cities. Basically, the people in both cities who could be pulled into the Hanseatic League were pulled in.

Therefore, even if they were each allocated a few hundred merchant ships, it would not be easy to fill those merchant ships with sailors, and they would have to recruit men from other places......

In fact, the chambers of commerce in the city of Hamburg, which had been assigned to the seized merchant ships, extended their black hands to Dietmarshin, who was nominally subservient to Marin......

Because, Dietmarshin has a population of more than 20,000, most of whom are Frisians, and the proportion of fishermen is very high. Recruit sailors from here, that's right.

As for Marin himself, he did not have enough control over the Dietmarshin region. Why? Because the Dietmarshin region is autonomous. Even though Marin enacted the Sailor First Act, which was very favorable to himself, because Marin could not be taxed in Dietmarsin by agreement, the Act was invalid for the Dietmarschen area. Recruiting sailors in the Dietmarshin area, Marin had no advantage over Hamburg.

Fortunately, he had enough sailors under his command. However, in order to prevent the Frisian fishermen on the coast of Oldenburg and the west coast of the Duchy of Schleswig, Marin, although there were not enough boats at present, widely publicized the Sailors' First Act among the Frisian fishermen in both places, and it was repeated publicly.

Marin's propagandists told the fishermen that there was no benefit to being sailors for foreign merchant ships. However, working as a sailor for Marin's navy, or Marin's merchant ships, the family can enjoy many benefits......

After publicity, the fishermen's families who could spare young and strong sailors naturally chose to serve in Marin's navy and merchant ships. However, due to the limited number of merchant ships, they cannot be recruited for the time being.

For this reason, Marin specially "invented" the method of "pre-registration", that is, let those young fishermen who are willing to work for themselves register as their own sailors first. Although they could not be called up immediately because of the lack of ships, Marin did give some of the sailors who were officially in service the same treatment. For example, salt can be prepaid in advance for salted fish......

When Marin has a boat, they will be formally recruited as sailors or sailors, and their families will enjoy full benefits, including a full advance on salt (not an unlimited advance, but a reasonable amount according to normal demand), and a loan to buy a large fishing boat. In addition, there are tax incentives.

When this trick was released, the people of Hamburg found it extremely difficult to send people to the west coast of the Duchy of Schleswig to recruit sailors. When they inquired, they all said that they would prefer to serve their lord Marin and listen to the call of his old man......

The people of Hamburg had no choice but to recruit people elsewhere. Anyway, Germany in this era lacks everything, that is, there is no shortage of poor ghosts who dare to fight for their lives......

As for the Lübecks, the situation was much better. Because, Lübeck belongs to the overlord of the Baltic region, and there is no conflict with the North Sea side. Even when recruiting sailors, Lübeck recruited sailors on the Baltic coast of Germany. For example, the eastern coast of the Duchy of Holstein, as well as the coast of the Duchy of Mecklenburg, and the coast of Pomerania.

However, it will take time to recruit enough sailors for hundreds of ships......

Marin, on the other hand, was the fishermen of East Friesland, the young ones, who had received basic training in a sailor's school. The sailors recruited by the Friesland region were just enough to fill the gap of 60 ships. If there were more ships, they would have to go to the Jävre region, the coast of Oldenburg and the western coast of the Duchy of Schleswig.

So, Marin started late. However, due to the small number of ships and the well-prepared sailors, they were immediately ready to plunge into the battle for trade in the Baltic region.

Moreover, because of the small number of ships, Lübeck and Hamburg, who had thousands of merchant ships at every turn, did not regard Marin as a rival.

Thus, when the merchant ships of Marin passed through the Øresund, they were not in trouble. You don't even have to pay a transit tax. Because, Marin and them are allies.

The two sides once again agreed that 60 merchant ships under Marin's name could be tax-free, which was exactly the same as the number of merchant ships of the "United German Shipping Company".

In fact, before that, there were more than a dozen Kirk galleons under Marin's command that ran the trade routes in the Baltic Sea. Because, before Marin owned the route of Königsberg in the Teutonic country, and accounted for a large share of the salt trade in the Teutonic country.

The salt trade is the most lucrative trade in the Baltic region, and all three are salivating over it.

Originally, the salt trade of the Teutonic kingdom and the merchant ships of Marin were all flying the flag of the Teutonic kingdom. But now, the situation is different. Because, the Øresund is controlled by Lübeck and Hamburg.

At this time, flying the flag of the Teutonic state still had to pay taxes. And flying Marin's own flag can be exempt from inspection and duty-free......

Therefore, Marin decisively changed the salt ship to Königsberg in the Teutonic kingdom to fly his own flag. In this way, a lot of transit tax savings can be made. You know, whether it is Denmark, or now Lübeck and Hamburg, it is clear that salt ships are very profitable. Therefore, when encountering salt carriers, the tax is also very ruthless.

But now because Marin is an ally of the two, he can be exempted from inspection by hoisting his own flag, which saves trouble.

Moreover, what Lübeck and Hamburg didn't know was that before that, when Marin passed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, he and Grand Duke Alexander quietly signed a super salt trade order with a profit of up to 800,000 gold coins per year.

Now, Marin sent ships over to fulfill the original trade agreement.

That is, without the knowledge of neither Lübeck nor Hamburg, Marin had already taken a huge share of nearly half of the salt market in the two large countries of Lithuania and Poland.

And now, what are Lübeck and Hamburg desperately trying to recruit sailors and equip those hundreds of merchant ships they have stolen from Denmark? Isn't it just to compete for the markets of Lithuania and Poland that will be vacated after the demise of Danish maritime power?

But they didn't know that Marin's cunning little brother, before the war was over, quietly snatched nearly half of the most valuable salt trade.

Moreover, Lithuania and Poland had always been hostile to the Hanseatic League because of their ties with the Teutonic Knights, allies of the Hanseatic League. This is also the reason why the Danes were able to easily share the world with the Hanseatic League in the Baltic Sea trade. Mainly, in the Baltic region, the two most powerful countries are Lithuania and Poland......

Of course, since the annexation of Novgorod by the Grand Duchy of Moscow, they are not the two strongest, but have become the Big Three......

In this invisible battle for the trade market, Marin has taken the lead. However, he did not dare to speak out. Because, if he were to come out public, he would surely be unanimously jealous of everyone.

After all, with an annual profit of 800,000 gold coins, anyone will be extremely red-eyed.

Fortunately, he cooperated with Alexander, the Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, and it was easier to keep secrets. Moreover, the Hanseatic League had always been hostile to Lithuania and Poland. Even if Lübeck and Hamburg find it difficult to open up markets in both countries, they will not have any doubts. Because, they were used to being hostile to Lithuania and Poland. It's normal for the enemy to refuse to buy them......

As for the less profitable trade in salted fish, salted meat, grain, wine, wool, wool, furs, livestock, plant ash, timber, flax, resin, beeswax, and all kinds of metal products, Marin was not going to rob them.

Because, the profits of those trade items are much lower than the salt trade, and looking at the boom, in fact, the profits of several ships of goods are not as large as the profits of half a shipload of salt.

Moreover, Lübeck and Hamburg, they each robbed hundreds of Danish merchant ships, so they have to give them a chance to show themselves, right?

Moreover, Marin still needs the support of the two families politically. Therefore, apart from the low-key salt trade, Marin does not plan to compete with the two companies for those less profitable trade items.

Of course, those trade items are said to be low profits, which are compared to the salt trade in the Baltic Sea region. Compared to the local trade in Western Europe, the profits are still quite high.

However, for the sake of safety, Marin wrote a secret letter to Alexander, Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, asking him to release the news that he could obtain a source of salt from the Black Sea region in the south......

Part of the territory of the Ukrainian region of Lithuania is on the Black Sea. The release of such news will make people wonder whether the Lithuanians are in contact with Venice, the overlord of the Mediterranean? Probably, the salt in their hands was supplied by the Venetian merchants?

In this way, Marin can pick himself out perfectly. Even if the Hanseatic League failed to take Lithuania and Poland's share of salt, they would not doubt themselves. After all, they could find out the "insider" - the Archduke Alexander and the Venetians......

And this kind of news cannot be verified. Because, the relationship between the Hanseatic League and Venice was not harmonious. Moreover, one is the hegemon of the Mediterranean Sea in the south of Europe, and the other is the overlord of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea in the north of Europe. Between the Earth Overlord and the Earth Overlord, they generally look at each other unpleasantly...... It's okay not to fight each other......