After thinking about it, Ma Lin finally decided to find an heir to the small princes' family who was not low in status but had a relatively bad family strength for his eldest niece. In this way, the eldest niece can not only satisfy the face of her parents and be the wife of a prince, but also will not have an impact on the situation in Beihai Kingdom.

However, in fact, Marin was also overwhelmed. Even if he wants to find a strong crown prince for his eldest niece, people are not happy. Just like the Spanish crown prince Marin, the marriage partners are generally princesses of major kingdoms. No matter how bad it is, it has to be a princess of a powerful prince, where can it be the turn of a prince's niece? Although Marin canonized Adler as the Earl of Wicklow and gave Wicklow County to Adler as an earldom, it was a subdivision within the Hoffman family, and other countries did not recognize it, only recognized Adler as a high-ranking nobleman of the North Sea State, but not a prince with independent sovereignty. Therefore, the status of the eldest niece and little Mary is naturally much lower than that of the daughters of the princes. Moreover, considering that the Hoffman family belonged to the nouveau riche among the princes, there were very few people who could look at her origin. Unless, it's the kind of little prince who is very down-and-out and needs to hug the thigh of Beihai Kingdom......

Obviously, Marin thought the same way. So, he ordered Kohler to start collecting information about the weak princes and princes, and to see if they were interested in marrying.

In any case, little Mary was also the first of the third generation of the Hoffman family, and would certainly have married earlier than Caesar. Therefore, it is true that you can't marry too poorly. Otherwise, his uncle would have no face.

Therefore, Marin directly promised that the dowry standard of Little Mary would be directly according to a very high standard. Its value, according to 200,000 gold coins, is paid by his uncle!

This decision stunned many people, and also moved the old Hoffmans and little Mary to the extreme. You must know that in this era, France's annual fiscal revenue is only about 1.2 million gold coins. Marin took out 200,000 gold coins as a dowry for his eldest niece, which was equivalent to one-sixth of the annual financial income of France, the largest power in Western Europe. Those poor countries, marrying little Mary, will definitely be able to eat up all at once.

Of course, it's not that Marin will shell out 200,000 gold coins of real money. He planned to offset most of the goods imported from the Ming Dynasty, such as silk and fine porcelain.

In this way, it is worth 200,000 gold coins on the surface, but in fact the cost is tens of thousands of gold coins. After all, these things are actually cheaper in Daming. However, if you bring it to Europe, it will indeed be worth 200,000 gold coins. Moreover, the dowry is all silk and fine porcelain, and it is particularly face-saving. After all, in Europe, the silk and porcelain of the East are the symbols of the moat. Whoever is particularly married is a cart of oriental silk and porcelain, which is estimated to make others envious to death.

Scarcity is precious, and this kind of thing also happened in ancient China. During the Tang Dynasty, Chinese pepper was very expensive. Prime Minister Yuan Zai was corrupt and actually amassed 800 stone of pepper. When Tang Dynasty Zong learned that Yuan Zai's family had 800 stone pepper, he was furious and ordered Yuan Zai's ancestral grave to be dug as an extremely serious punishment. No way, during the Tang Dynasty, because of the inconvenient transportation, pepper, which was extremely cheap in Southeast Asia and India, was also very valuable in China, and the price was the same as that of Europe at that time.

Of course, this was also the time when Arab merchants ruled the Tang Dynasty. When they bought from India, the price of pepper was very cheap, and when it was shipped to the Tang Dynasty, it opened its mouth and sold it at a sky-high price. If anyone travels to the Tang Dynasty, as long as they can open up the trade routes of India and engage in the pepper trade, they will be allowed to make a fortune.

Because, during the Tang Dynasty, the Chinese people did not eat pork, but mutton. Mutton, on the other hand, has a strong flavor and needs spices, so pepper is very sought after by the powerful. In addition, the Tang Dynasty did not produce pepper at that time, and there was no great voyage, so it could only rely on Arab merchants to transport it, so it could only be slaughtered.

As for the later decline in pepper prices, it also has something to do with the popularity of pork. After all, pork is not as rich as lamb and doesn't need to be spiced too much. But the real decline in pepper prices was after Zheng He went to the West and opened up the routes to Southeast Asia.

Although the Ming Dynasty no longer sent fleets to the Western Ocean, after Zheng He opened up the shipping routes, Southeast Asian countries such as Manchurian and Manchurian did not stop sending tributary ships to the Ming Dynasty for tributary trade. Then, pepper prices really started to fall. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, pepper was still an expensive thing. By the time of the Wanli period, there were only more than 100 wen and a catty left, and ordinary Yin Shi families could afford it.

In the same way, at present, Europe has not fully opened the market of the Ming Dynasty, and only Marin can trade with the Ming, and the Portuguese have failed. Therefore, at this time, oriental silk and porcelain were naturally extremely rare luxury goods in Europe. In fact, if only the purchase price is considered, silk deteriorated porcelain worth 200,000 gold coins may only cost a few thousand gold coins in the Ming Dynasty. This is still double the shipping cost of ultra-long distances and other additional costs, but it is only a fraction of the value.

Therefore, what Marin said is bold, but in fact, the cost is not very high. But, in the eyes of other Europeans, this is real boldness. Because, the market value of this thing is not fake.

However, because the value of the dowry was "too high", Madame Mary feared that others would only be willing to marry little Mary because they were greedy for a dowry. Therefore, Madame Mary asked for the time being to conceal the exact amount, and only to declare it to the public as a "very large dowry", and not to mention the specific value of 200,000, so as not to frighten others or attract greedy people.

Marin rolled his eyes when he heard Lady Mary's concern, and said to himself, what is this? During the Western Jin Dynasty, Shi Chong and Wang Kai used expensive purple silk and colored satin to lay 40 and 50 miles of barriers. Moreover, the Chinese folk are known as "ten miles of red makeup". Although it is an exaggeration, in the Ming Dynasty, there were really many wealthy families who could afford silk porcelain worth thousands of taels of silver......

But this is Europe, not China, where the productive forces are developed. So, Lady Mary's concern is somewhat justified. Therefore, Marin did not hype up the richness of the dowry, but only vaguely said "rich".

However, at this time, Marin came up with a plan to hold a wedding for his son Caesar - ten miles of red makeup, no discount!

Caesar is also 14 years old, and will soon be 15 years old, but Princess Margaret of England is still young, only 10 years old. But in a few years, the two will almost be able to get married.

When the time comes, Marin, the father, will definitely make Caesar's wedding a legend. There was no way when I got married, it was still a business at that time, and the Ming Dynasty route was not opened, so I had no conditions, so I could only use inferior Lyon silk to make up the numbers.

But by the time Caesar and Princess Margaret got married, Marlin had a lot of silk in his hands. When the time comes, Ma Lin plans to learn from Shi Chong and Wang Kai, use red silk as a barrier on both sides, and really put on a posture of "ten miles of red makeup" to shock the European turtles.

By that time, Marin should have thwarted French interference in his annexation of England and would no longer be afraid of the threat of others. So, even if you are as rich as Shi Chong and Wang Kai?