In those days, there were no national banks in Europe. Often, the scope of a bank's operations is limited to a large city. Of course, there are also cross-city banks, but at most across a few cities, and all of them are big cities.

For the time being, the banking sector in Italy is relatively developed. The banks in Venice, for example, are relatively large. However, it is also limited to the territory of the Republic of Venice. Out of Venice, the impact is not great.

Of course, there are some large and influential banking families. For example, the Fugger family, who supported the Habsburgs, had a greater influence on their banking. Even the cardinals of Rome accepted the Fugger family bank drafts.

However, those big banks tend to only have offices in big cities. For example, in Rome, in Vienna, in Milan......

A little-known town like Emden doesn't have branches of the big banks. Moreover, Marin will not allow outsiders to set up banks in the North Sea Country to take out the cash of the North Sea Country.

In fact, Marin was planning to set up his own bank. However, due to various reasons, it was not established for the time being. Moreover, even if he formed the official bank of the North Sea State, it would at best be aimed at the domestic side. It is not easy to expand to other countries......

Therefore, this auction in Emden, the carrying and verification of funds, is a big problem. Because, Emden does not have a branch of those famous banks. Those who participated in the auction, many of them simply came to the auction with cash. However, for the sake of convenience, Marin invited some representatives of the Hanseatic banks from Hamburg and Cologne to provide settlement services for those who carried money orders. But many people don't know that Marin invited those bank representatives, and in order to be able to successfully auction the goods they wanted, they simply brought a large number of gold and silver coins.

And in order to count these gold and silver coins and issue tickets, it also cost a lot of manpower to the Beihai Kingdom. In order to help count the gold and silver coins, Marin mobilized a large number of tax collectors from all over the country to help count the amount of money.

Actually, but if you count the numbers, it's still very simple. But the problem is that the value of each country's currency is not equal!

Not to mention the currency of other countries, but the currency within HRE is very complicated. Because the emperor was elected, the previous emperor, in order to get votes, authorized those princes to mint their own coins. Then, the currency of the HRE was messed up......

The gold coins are fine, everyone uses high-purity gold coinage. And the silver coins are more messy......

It is also a small silver finney, some of the vassal kingdom silver coins have a high silver content, while others have a low silver content. For example, in Austria and Bohemia, because there are many silver mines, the silver content of the minted silver finney coins is good, and it can reach about half. Saxony's silver coins, because of their developed economy, can also reach about 40%. But some vassal states with poor economies are more chaotic...... For example, in the Archbishopric of Trier, the silver finney coins they minted are estimated to contain less than a quarter of the silver, and they are lighter than the small finney coins of other countries......

Therefore, counting silver coins is the most frustrating thing. The officials involved in the inventory had to calculate not only the amount of currency, but also the exchange rate according to the silver content of the silver coins of each vassal state......

It wasn't until the day before the auction that the poor tax collectors calculated all the money of the bidders and issued them with proof of receipts. Then, these bidders, with the proof of the bill, went to the auction management office and received the number plate of the auction.

……

The next day, the much-anticipated auction finally began......

Imitating the professional auction houses of later generations, Marin specially found an auctioneer who could speak well and gave him a small mallet so that he could "make the final decision......

In fact, in this era, there were no formal auction houses. Historically, formal auction houses seem to have only appeared in the 18th century. Of course, auction bidding appeared very early. It's just that it's not that formal.

Marin distributed a number plate with a wooden handle to each participant, and also allocated seats according to their status and the number of self-produced bidders. Generally speaking, those with high status and those with more money are placed in the front row, while those with lower status and less money are placed in the back row......

Then, in the design of the booth, Marin also put a lot of thought into it - there were no electric lights in those years, so the lighting effect was difficult to do. But Marin used the mirror to spread the sunlight outdoors, and asked a special "gaffer" to hold a bronze mirror to shine the light on the booth and land on the auction items...... Moreover, these "gaffers" have to constantly adjust the angle of the mirror according to the height of the sun......

Then, when the auction began, buyers were shocked to find that the porcelain on the stand was shining in the sun......

"This is a piece of fine porcelain from the ancient and mysterious Eastern Empire, with a starting price of 10 gold coins and an increase of 0.1 gold coins each time. Now, show your enthusiasm and start bidding! Please pay attention, gentlemen, every time you ask for a price, please hold up the sign first. And after I counted down to 321, I dropped the hammer to make sure that you had the goods you wanted! So, start bidding now! The auctioneer shouted excitedly.

In fact, the first porcelain to be taken out was not a fine product, but an ordinary civilian product, and the cost of each piece would never exceed 0.1 taels of silver (100 Wen).

But the European turtles present didn't know, and they began to get excited with the auctioneer's bewitchment. Then, they asked for the price:

"I'll give 10 gold coins!" A fat man in butler costume shouted. However, this one forgot to hold up his card. Obviously, he is not yet comfortable with this new auction model.

The auctioneer frowned, but still said politely:

"This guest, please raise the sign first, and then bid the price!"

The fat man's face flushed, and then he held up the sign and repeated:

"I'll give 10 gold coins!"

As soon as his words fell, a person next to him also held up a sign:

"10.1 gold!"

"Very good, guest 49 bid 10.1 gold coins, and there is no ......," the auctioneer shouted excitedly.

"10.2 gold!" The other person also held up a sign.

"Guest 36 bids 10.2 gold coins......"

"15 gold!" A butler-like man sitting in the front row said impatiently. For those people, 0.1 gold coins are added slowly, and he is not that patient.

"Okay, the 10th guest has bid 15 gold coins, is there a higher bid?"

"17 gold!" Suddenly, another person in the front row also made a bid. Obviously, the front row are all bigwigs, and the price increase does not have a decimal point.

"17.2 gold!" Suddenly, someone from the back row joined in. Obviously, although the person in the back row is not of high status and does not have much money, he really wants to get this porcelain......

Then, there was an interesting scene in the auction - the price increase in the front row was based on the whole number of gold coins, and the price in the back row was increased by decimal point......

In the end, the first ordinary piece of porcelain fetched a whopping 33.2 gold coins, which was better than the average price of the finest porcelain that Comté auctioned in Lisbon, Portugal. However, the porcelain that began to be auctioned is the most common color......

Then, with the gradual improvement of porcelain grades, the price of porcelain also soared...... By the time the 500th piece (the best piece of porcelain) was auctioned, the unit price had reached 97 gold coins, more than three times the price at auction in Lisbon......

This is probably the effect of publicity, in short, the auction of 500 pieces of porcelain, the average price is as high as 46 gold coins. Its total price reached 23,000 gold coins. In Guangzhou, the purchase price of these 500 pieces of porcelain is definitely not more than 120 gold coins. In other words, if you don't count the cost of sailing, the profit is as high as 191 times. Even if the cost of navigation is removed, there is a hundredfold profit!

Next, the auction of silk is not as hot as porcelain. After all, silk is also produced in Europe, but the quality is average. And porcelain, which was the exclusive supply of China in this era, is naturally even rarer.

In the end, the profit of silk is only about ten times, which is far from being comparable to porcelain. However, this also made Marin make a lot of money. Because, the amount of silk is greater. Mainly, the shipment of porcelain is more troublesome. After all, porcelain is space-centric and takes up more space. Moreover, a special wooden box is required to fix it to avoid breakage. Silk, on the other hand, can be stuffed more densely in the cabin, so the quantity is relatively large.

Therefore, this time Emden's auction made Marin earn a huge profit of more than 50,000 gold coins. With airport auctions to take place in major European cities such as Lübeck, Worms, Rome, Paris, Barcelona and London, Marin is already looking forward to more gold coins...... In short, after these auctions, Marlin definitely made more than 200,000 gold coins......