After the New Year, while Marin was busy rebuilding after the war, he sent invitations to the nobles of various European countries to participate in the auction. As for what to auction, it is natural that the silk and porcelain shipped back from the Ming Dynasty.

In this war, although Marin succeeded in seizing the territory of 8 vassal states, the losses were also staggering. In particular, tens of thousands of rye fields in the Count of Oldenburg were burned down after ripening, and the losses were staggering. In addition, because of the war, the two provinces of Oldenburg and North and South Münster, together with the Ruhr department, suffered very significant economic losses from the war.

As a result, Marin continued to spend a lot of money on reconstruction. At the same time, it was used to settle the newly conquered regions. Therefore, it is natural for Marin to put the auction of silk and porcelain on the agenda.

In addition, in addition to silk and porcelain, Marin also introduced the sale of paper. Because of the use of modern chemical pulping technology, coupled with the endless forest resources in Canada, the paper industry in Cape Breton Island in the North Sea Country is very developed, and the cost of paper is also very cheap. Even, it is much cheaper than the cost of papermaking in the Ming Dynasty.

But Marin couldn't explain the origin of the paper before, and he couldn't tell anyone that he had mastered the new papermaking technology, right? Therefore, even if there is a serious backlog of paper in his hands, Marin cannot dump white paper in Europe.

But now it's different, he went to the Ming Dynasty once. With the excuse of the Ming Dynasty, he could take out the paper openly......

In the current Ming Dynasty, the price of paper is not expensive, about 0.1 taels of silver per 100 pieces of paper. That's 3.73 grams of silver, which is worth about 4.5 pfennigs. This is ordinary bamboo paper, which belongs to the mid-range paper.

But in today's Europe, paper is still made of flax skin, rags and fishing nets, using centuries-old Chinese technology, which is expensive and scarce. At present, the price of paper in Europe can almost reach the level of 1 pfennig per paper. 100 pieces of paper is 100 pfennig, which is equivalent to 1.66 gold coins. Its price is 22 times more expensive than bamboo paper in the Ming Dynasty, but the quality is not as good as bamboo paper.

And the cost of Marin's paper production in Canada is terrifyingly low. Because Canadian trees don't cost money, just cut them down. The cost of coal is also very low, so at the Cape Breton Island paper mill, the cost of paper is less than 0.5 pfennig per 100 sheets......

This is also because of the high labor cost in Europe, if you use cheap Ming Dynasty craftsmen, the cost is estimated to be twice as low......

In other words, the cost per 100 sheets of paper in Cape Breton Island paper mill is only one-ninth of the market price of bamboo paper in the Ming Dynasty. Even if the cost of bamboo paper in the Ming Dynasty is only half of the market price, the cost of papermaking on Cape Breton Island is only 1.5/4.5 of that of paper in the Ming Dynasty.

However, the quality of the paper on Cape Breton Island is more than that of the bamboo paper of the Ming Dynasty. Because, Marlin let the craftsmen use modern papermaking technology, add some additives for current papermaking, such as fluorite powder, kaolin, etc., plus the original caustic soda or sodium sulfate has a certain bleaching effect, so that the paper made by the paper mill on Cape Breton Island is not only whiter than ordinary paper, but also smoother, which is conducive to writing and printing. Of course, because there is no chloride bleach that was domineering in later generations, the paper is not as white as the white paper of later generations. However, compared to the yellowing paper that was common in this era, it was white enough. The point is, the cost is still low.

For example, in Europe today, a piece of paper costs 1 pfennig. A 1,725-page Bible would cost hundreds of pages. The cost of paper alone costs more than one gold coin. Plus the cost of printing and binding, several gold coins per copy.

So, in Europe now, ordinary people simply can't afford to buy books. The Bible, which consumed a lot of paper, was only used by the aristocracy and missionaries. Because of the high cost of paper, it is impossible to popularize the current knowledge in Europe.

The real take-off of science and technology culture in Europe was based on two events - one was that during the Qianlong period, the French missionary Jiang Youren, who infiltrated the Qianlong court, drew China's paper-making technology in the form of pictures and sent it back to Paris.

The French are famous for their love of stealing, and the glass mirror manufacturing technology in Venice was stolen by the French. Later, they repeated the old trick and stole the papermaking technology from China. In addition to stealing glass mirror technology and paper-making technology, the French also sent missionary Yin Hongxu into Jingdezhen in 1698 to steal porcelain manufacturing technology. Later, in the 18th century, Europe produced its own porcelain......

The other is based on the Chinese papermaking technology brought back by Jiang Youren, in the 19th century, Europeans invented machine pulping and chemical pulping methods, which greatly reduced the cost of paper and made books and newspapers affordable for ordinary people.

To take the simplest example – for example, newspapers in England, before the invention of modern paper-making technology, were priced as much as 1 shilling, or 12 pence, per copy. But when the cost of paper came down, the price of newspapers dropped to one penny per copy, a drop of up to 12 times......

……

Of course, Marin was not so kind to let the European countries use cheap paper. The purpose of selling paper this time was nothing more than to cover up the Canadian paper mills.

In the future, Marin plans to promote the use of books and paper invoices throughout the country. Now, it has been promoted in the central institutions. The next step is to promote it to the private sector.

However, the rash spread of paper across the country will make other countries suspicious. Therefore, Ma Lin simply took out a batch of paper this time and sold it with the silk and porcelain bought by Daming. He wants to use this auction to tell other countries that I bought a lot of paper in the Ming Dynasty, and the price is not high......

In this way, no one doubts that paper will be widely used in Beihai in the future. After all, it makes sense to buy paper from Daming......

As for the price of the paper, Marin was not polite. Although the cost of his 100 pieces of paper is less than 0.5 pfennigs, he intends to sell them at a price of 0.3 pfennighs per 100 sheets, which is 30 pfennighs per 100 sheets, which is equivalent to half a gold coin......

This price is more than 6 times more expensive than Daming's bamboo paper, but it is less than one-third of the European market price. Moreover, the paper quality is better. With such a cheap price and excellent quality, you don't have to worry about not being able to sell. Moreover, Marin can still make money. After all, the Cape Breton Island paper mill costs only 0.005 pfennig per sheet, and sells it at 0.3 pfennig per sheet, which is a 60-fold increase......

……

As in the previous auction, Marin still does not plan to auction in one place, but in several venues.

Moreover, this time, the local auction venue, Marin is not going to be placed in Emden or Aurich, but in Las Vegas City at the mouth of the Elbe.

The reason why the auction was held in Las Vegas was because Marin intended to sell Las Vegas as a casino to various countries. After all, Marin didn't build Las Vegas to play for his own people, but to make money. If there are no customers, how can you make money?

Therefore, Marin set up the local auction house in Las Vegas this time. When the people who participated in the auction arrived in Las Vegas, they felt the developed gambling industry there, and they would definitely linger. Then, next time, these people may come back. Even if you don't come, word of mouth spreads, and it can also drive others to come and consume......

In addition to Las Vegas, Marin intends to hold auctions in Paris, London, Rome, Barcelona and Lisbon to take care of consumers from various countries. As for Germany itself, a special southern office will be opened in Nuremberg in the south to facilitate customers in the southern part of Germany......