Once the Netherlands completed the initiative to replace the original farmland, wild meadows and forests with alfalfa meadows, the nobles would be able to make money from sheep farming. However, after the deforestation, the shipbuilding industry in the Netherlands is even less hopeful......

In the end, Marin was still guarding against the rise of the Netherlands as a seafaring power, as it did in history. Therefore, to destroy the shipbuilding and seafaring transport industry in the Netherlands as much as possible is the unremitting goal of Marin.

Previously, Marin had used various means to transform Amsterdam, which has more than a dozen shipyards, into a famous furniture manufacturing center in Europe. But Marin still felt that it was not enough, because as long as there were so many trees in the Netherlands, there was a possibility that there would be merchants who would go to the shipyards.

Now, by encouraging the Dutch nobles to enclose their land and convert all their land, including forests, into alfalfa meadows, Marin was able to get the Dutch to cut down the oaks themselves. When they are out of oak, how can they build ships and compete with the North Sea States?

There's a lot more to this than transforming Amsterdam into a furniture city. Marin could ruin Amsterdam's shipbuilding industry by making furniture, but it couldn't stop the entire Netherlands from building ideas. Without Amsterdam, there are ports such as Antwerp, and the shipbuilding industry is still developing.

But the premise of building a ship for the Dutch was that they had enough timber to build a ship......

Of course, the Dutch could also import timber from overseas to build ships. As in history, the Dutch could import timber from Norway and southern Sweden and ship it back to their home countries for shipbuilding.

However, that was a later thing. In the early stage, if you want to develop your country's shipbuilding industry, you must rely on local timber. Only when the scale is increased, will the import of timber from abroad be considered for shipbuilding. Otherwise, if there is no shipbuilding base, it is better to buy ships directly from abroad.

And Marin used the way of bewitching the Dutch nobles to enclose the land, and quietly let the Dutch people cut down the oak trees in the country themselves, which is the real ruthless move. Without the supply of oak, and the development of a ghost shipbuilding industry?

Prince Philip and several Dutch nobles were unaware of Marin's sinister intentions, and they were now fully immersed in the beautiful "money scene" that Marin had described to them as "earning hundreds of thousands or even millions of gold coins a year". For them, there is nothing more important than making money......

In recent years, the Dutch economy has been hit hard by British restrictions on wool exports. At the moment, Prince Philip and the nobles of the Netherlands are not having a good time. At most, their earnings are a little better than those of the nobles who purely farm. After all, the woollen industry in Flanders has not completely collapsed. However, it is not far from the Beat.

But Marin's suggestion to them to raise sheep in a field really gave them great hope. In particular, he was willing to give them 100,000 British sheep.

If it is another country, even if it is enclosed and sheep are raised, it may not be able to obtain huge profits. After all, if you produce more wool, you may also encounter price reduction from buyers.

But the Netherlands is different, the Flemish region here is the top wool center in Europe, but I am afraid that you will not have enough wool, and you will not worry about the sale of wool at all. The premise is that the wool quality is good.

So Marin's willingness to provide 100,000 British sheep means a lot to them. Once the Netherlands is able to produce high-quality British wool on a large scale, it will soon be able to form a wool spinning country with integrated production and marketing, and its competitiveness will be no less than that of England.

Moreover, in a small country like the Netherlands, the transition is simple. For example, the enclosure movement in Britain has produced huge social turmoil. During the reign of Henry VIII, England was in turmoil for the sake of enclosure. In order to control the displaced people, Henry VIII repeatedly sacrificed butcher's knives to kill landless peasants who refused to obey the arrangement. It is also thanks to England that it is difficult for other countries to interfere with it. Otherwise, in a continental country, the emergence of hundreds of thousands of landless peasants in the country would be enough to trigger a riot that swept the whole country. Because, even if you want to control, your neighbors will intervene in the shadows.

Only an island nation like England, which was isolated overseas, and it was difficult for other countries to meddle in their domestic affairs, allowed Henry VIII to concentrate on suppressing the chaos at home.

The Netherlands, on the other hand, is a small area of tens of thousands of square kilometers and is relatively easy to manage. Although there are many peasants, if they lose their land, it is indeed easy to cause riots. However, with Marin's help in absorbing all the landless peasants who might cause riots, they will be able to complete the enclosure safely. At that time, the Dutch nobles would be able to reap huge profits by raising sheep in the enclosure. And those nobles who owned woolen factories were more able to gain more benefits through wool processing......

……

It's just that they don't know that Marin has long been secretly preparing better North Sea sheep to produce high-quality North Sea wool that is both soft and finer and suitable for wool spinning.

In addition, Marin also began to work on Jenny spinning machines and shuttles, preparing for the industrial revolution. The spinning speed of the Jenny spinning machine is 8 times that of an ordinary hand-cranked spinning machine, and the efficiency of the weaving shuttle is more than 2 times that of an ordinary loom......

Combining the two, combined with better North Sea sheep wool, what if the Netherlands were able to produce its own British wool? It is still going to be pressed by the future Beihai wool industry......

Right now, the Beihai Kingdom Jenny spinning machine has been made. After all, the principle is the simplest, just turn the hand-cranked spinning machine down and put 8 spindles side by side.

The weaving shuttle is more troublesome, Marin had seen the pattern of the shuttle in his previous life, and soon let the craftsman make the shuttle. However, the problem was how to attach the shuttle to the loom and make it automatically move back and forth from side to side under the traction of a rope. To this end, Marin arranged for a group of watchmakers and loom craftsmen to study the problem together. As soon as this problem is solved, the speed of the loom can be more than doubled......

When the time comes, there will be better wool and higher production efficiency, what will the Netherlands compare to? In the end, they also had to cut prices and reduce their profits. Otherwise, there will be no competitiveness......

……

In fact, Marin has an even bigger killer weapon, the best merino wool from authentic merino sheep!

In the small African desert oasis of Laayoune, the Viceroyalty of Laayoune in Marin raised 10,000 authentic Merino sheep using Berber slaves under its control!

This is the descendant of a hundred pairs of merino sheep that Marin exchanged with the Spanish kings on the Indian route, and at present, it has grown to tens of thousands.

In fact, if Merino sheep were allowed to breed freely, there would be more than that. The reason why there are only 10,000 of them, the report of Governor Cotton of Laayoune points out that Laayoune is a small oasis on the edge of the Sahara Desert, and that 10,000 Merino sheep here is already the limit. If there were too many, it would destroy the local grasslands and trigger the environmental crisis that Marin said.

As a last resort, the local area of Laayoune has slaughtered thousands of merinos for breeding, because they are worried that the local grassland will shrink and the environment will be seriously damaged.

However, authentic Merino sheep could not adapt to the environment when they were transported to the American colonies. As for shipping back home...... Marin vowed never to bring Merino sheep back to Europe to raise them, and the cold and humid climate of the North Sea Country was not suitable for the growth of Merino sheep.

Speaking of which, the ones that can adapt to the growth of Merino sheep are probably in arid and warm places such as North Africa, West Asia, the inland plateau of South Africa, or Australia.

North Africa and West Asia don't have to think about it, Marin's hand can't reach there for the time being. South Africa is not good either, it is still the territory of the Portuguese, and Marin is not good at breaking the rules.

Thinking about it, probably only Australia, the most suitable place for Merino sheep to grow in later generations, can let Marlin go to grazing. After all, Australia is not colonized by any country.

In fact, in the Treaty of Todesillas, which was originally signed between Spain and Portugal, according to the division of the "papal meridian", Australia should be counted as the sphere of influence of the Portuguese.

But later, under the impetus of Marin, Spain and Portugal, including Marin, redefined the colonial area. Portugal's sphere of influence is clearly defined as most of Africa and India, as well as West Asia, Southeast Asia, and China, and does not include the unknown Australia.

Therefore, now Marin will not infringe on the interests of Portugal by sending people to Australia to raise sheep.

Thinking of this, Marin finally made up his mind to secretly send a fleet to explore the Australian route at the Cape of Good Hope. Then, drift down the westerly wind to Perth, Western Australia, where you can herd a herd of Merino sheep in the local Swan River Basin. Perth was then used as an important production base for merino sheep.

The region of Western Australia is dry and warm, which is ideal for the survival of merino sheep. Moreover, the Swan River valley contained far more Merino sheep than the Laayoune colony. When the time comes, Marlin will have an endless supply of high-quality merino wool......