"Pay with salt?" The Bremen delegates present and the two presidents of Lübeck and Hamburg were stunned.

Then, Heinrich, the speaker of the Lübeck Parliament, changed his face and said:

"Do you want to pay for it with salt from the salt mines of Lübeck?"

Marin nodded and said:

"That's right, I'm going to pay for it with Lübeck's mineral salt!"

"I don't agree, you pay the salt to the Bremen people, what will we Lubeck merchants do?" Heinrich's face changed dramatically.

It is important to know that the salt trade in the Baltic region is one of the core interests of Lübeck. Heinrich's family relied on Lübeck's salt. If Marin had given the salt to the Bremen merchants, the Lübeck salt merchants would have suffered a great loss.

Marin waved his hand and said:

"Don't get me wrong, I don't give salt to Bremen merchants to sell, I use salt to pay for real estate."

"Does that make a difference?" Heinrich was puzzled.

Marin explains:

"I mean, I mean to use the salt from Lüneburg as collateral for the money to buy a house. However, I don't give the salt directly to them. In order to protect Lübeck's interests, my intention is this: next, I will issue a certificate called 'salt citation'. If you want to sell salt in the Lüneburg Salt Mine, you must rely on this certificate to get the salt. ”

"But even if they get the salt, they can't take it away. It is my intention that only the salt merchants of Lübeck will be allowed to transport salt. In other words, this certificate, called 'salt citation', can only ensure that the holder of the certificate receives salt from the Lüneburg salt mine. But if you want to get salt from the mines, you have to be a Lüneburg salt merchant. For this purpose, I will provide the Lüneburg salt merchant with a bill of lading. When the time came, the salt merchants in Lüneburg found the Bremen merchants with the 'salt guides' in their hands with the bills of lading, and bought salt from them......"

Heinrich's mind was a little insufficient, he scratched his bald hair, thought for a long time, and then said:

"What do you mean, that you can only mention salt from the Lüneburg salt mine with that 'salt lead' along with the bill of lading?"

"That's right, 'salt citation' is actually a kind of asset substitution certificate. However, this certificate does not qualify for the distribution of table salt. In the final analysis, this kind of voucher is what I use to offset the account. In the end, the salt distribution link was handed over to the friends of Lüneburg to sell. To put it bluntly, it is to let the Bremen merchants take the salt and ask you to cash it. ”

Heinrich asked again:

"Is there a limit to our bill of lading?"

"Of course, I will provide a bill of lading of the same amount according to the purchase accounts of each Lübeck salt merchant in the past. Of course, Your Excellency, as the leader of Lübeck, I will give you some extra bills of lading to allocate freely. After all, I'm also planning to expand Lüneburg's salt production......" Marin smiled.

Heinrich suddenly had a serious golden glow, yes, a golden glow. Salt, it's white gold. Marin provides more bill of lading quotas to himself, which is clearly to make himself rich! Moreover, even if he can't eat it himself, he can use those quotas as favors to win over political allies.

……

Seeing Marin and Heinrich singing and harmonizing there, the Bremen merchants on the side were depressed......

Originally, they were happy to hear that Marin was going to give them salt. Because, if you sell salt to the Baltic Sea region, you will be doubling the profits. In the end, however, they were disappointed that the salt was just a turn in their hands, and that it was still sold to the merchants of Lübeck......

In fact, they don't want to think about whether the Lübecks would allow someone else to interfere in such a big business as selling salt to the Baltic Sea. This was Lübeck's core interest in becoming the leader of the Hanseatic League. If others dare to hand over their claws, they will definitely attract crazy blows.

In addition, it should be pointed out that the Lübeck people transported Lüneburg's mineral salt to the Baltic region, and in many cases it was not to sell it to the people of the Baltic region, but to marinate salted fish.

Yes, salted fish and fresh meat. According to historical records, the top three commodities of the Hanseatic League were salt, herring (herring) and fresh meat. Among them, herring does not refer to live fish, but to pickled herring. Specifically, salted fish.

In this era, the North Sea Fishing Ground, one of the four major fishing grounds in later generations, was not actually formed. At this time, the northern seas of Europe, the Baltic Sea region, were the center of fisheries. The Baltic Sea region was rich in herring during this era. Herring, on the other hand, is a marine fish, and it will die quickly and decay if it is separated from the seawater. Therefore, a lot of salt is required to marinate the herring into salted fish.

And pickled salted fish, obviously does not need too high-grade salt. As long as the salt is non-toxic and non-bitter, it can be used to marinate salted fish and salted meat.

Therefore, although the salt produced by the Lüneburg salt mine is not as pure as sea salt (a few mineral salts are also of good quality, but they are fine products, supplied to nobles and wealthy merchants), but they are more than enough for salted fish.

It just so happens that thanks to the Stocknitz Canal, Lüneburg's mineral salt can be easily transported to the Baltic region. Therefore, such unique conditions led to the rise of Lübeck and the prosperity of Lüneburg.

However, Cheng also salted fish, worship also salted fish. When, after 1560, the herring production area was transferred from the Baltic Sea region to the North Sea region, and Lübeck and Lüneburg declined together. And because of the arrival of herring production areas, another region has completely risen - that is, the Netherlands......

If the herring fishery is not transferred to the North Sea region, it will be difficult for the Netherlands to rise. Moreover, you have to ask Lübeck if he agrees. However, with the transfer of herring production areas to the waters near the Netherlands in the North Sea region, the "sea coachmen" were in a position to rise.

So, it was history that chose the Netherlands, and it was not the Netherlands that made history...... Don't listen to the nonsense of "The Rise of a Great Power", the Dutch invented a fish-cutting knife and rose......

The Dutch invented the fish cutter in the 14th century. However, it was in the late 16th century that the Netherlands really rose. Because, after 1560, the herring fishery came to the vicinity of the Netherlands. There is only a fish cutting knife, but there are not enough fish, and a G8 rises...... If you really want to rely on fish cutters alone, the Netherlands should have risen in the 14th century......

However, this can't be blamed for Yang Ma's lack of knowledge. Because, this is what the Dutch themselves promote. In order to show the superiority of their own nation, the Dutch must have boasted about the bullishness of the Dutch people, such as the invention of the fish cutting knife or something. As for the transfer of herring production areas to the North Sea in 1560, they deliberately ignored them. Otherwise, how can it appear that their ancestors are more than cattle? Seems to be the tallest of the Dutch nation?

Of course, although the main production area of herring is in the Baltic Sea, there are actually a lot of fish in the North Sea. The main reason is that there were too few fishing boats in this era, and the sea was not well developed. Therefore, the fishing volume of the North Sea country in Marin is actually quite impressive.

In particular, Marin vigorously promoted the modern fishing technique of winch trawl, so that the catch of the North Sea country is still considerable. In addition, Marin also implemented a system of loans to buy large and medium-sized fishing boats, which greatly facilitated the fishing industry in the North Sea country. You know, with large and medium-sized fishing boats, coupled with winch "V" trawls, fishermen in the North Sea have the ability to fish in the deep sea.

In the Baltic Sea, there are mainly too many herrings, and people can reap a bumper harvest by casually casting their nets. In addition, herring has the habit of migrating to offshore intensively during the spawning season. Experienced fishermen don't have to go deep into the sea at all, they just need to wait at the beach during the fishing season and cast their nets when they see the migratory herring.

The so-called rise of the Dutch means that after 1560, the herring came to the North Sea, and they waited on the beach during the fishing season to wait for the herring to be brought to the door to be caught...... The fish cutting knife waited two hundred years to show its skills......

Of course, that fish-cutting knife is not useless. At least, it's convenient for Dutch fishermen. However, because herring was not abundant until 1560, the Netherlands was tepid. It wasn't until the fishing grounds were moved to the doorstep that the knife came into play and sent the Netherlands soaring.

Marin was much more advanced than them, and while the Europeans were still waiting for herring to migrate inshore, Marin had already let fishermen go to the deep sea with large and medium-sized fishing boats and winch trawls. Because of the high efficiency of the winch trawl, the North Sea country has never lacked salted fish. The serfs of the farms under Marin's command were given a lot of salted fish as a nutritional supplement every year. After all, eating bread alone is not enough.