novelraw Chapter 130: Financial Secrets
Chapter 130: Financial Secrets
Ch 130: Financial Secrets
The meeting ended, and Vig did not make things difficult for Eric’s envoy, inviting the other party to have lunch together.
After tasting the superior wine from Bordeaux and dishes seasoned with expensive spices, the envoy’s attitude softened considerably, exclaiming that Duke Vig was a truly generous man.
After three rounds of drinks, the envoy gradually lowered his guard, and under Vig’s guidance, inadvertently mentioned Eric’s newly built castle.
“Burp, ever since Your Majesty and Ragnar captured York seven years ago, he has been fixated on York’s stone-built architecture, and even said that grand buildings are beneficial for showcasing the lord’s authority.
Actually, this statement makes a lot of sense. Taking myself as an example, an hour ago, when the ship had not yet docked, I was immediately captivated by your castle at first glance, and I believe most travelers feel the same.”
Vig: “Thank you for your praise. In fact, I built the castle merely for defense. The territory is located on the northeast coast of Britain and frequently suffers from pirate harassment, forcing me to spend a vast sum to build this castle.”
“Vast sum?” The envoy instantly became interested. Upon learning that Tyne’s construction cost was only two hundred pounds of silver, he exclaimed:
“It’s incredibly cheap! Eric’s castle, from quarrying the stone to construction, cost a total of 1200 pounds of silver, and it’s currently only a half-finished product. Hundreds of pounds of silver in expenditure are still anticipated.”
Twelve hundred pounds! Just how much money did Eric’s subordinates embezzle?
Vig felt deeply fortunate that Herigifu had read a large number of Latin documents and had been exposed to knowledge regarding construction, preventing him from being deceived by the stonemasons.
Suppressing his inner shock, he lifted his goblet and took a sip. “Eric is a king. His castle, in addition to defending against foreign enemies, also has to undertake administrative functions and entertain visitors from all over the world. It requires a larger area, so a higher construction cost is quite normal.”
“Entertaining visitors?” The envoy’s face fell. “The treasury is already out of money. Before the castle was built, guests could freely drink honey wine, and occasionally they could also taste expensive red wine from Francia. Today, ordinary guests can only drink beer. Uh, I’m not intentionally denigrating Tyne’s beer; it’s just that the price is too low to show the king’s status.”
“It’s alright, it doesn’t matter. Beer has always been a commoner’s drink, and it’s not on the same level as wine and honey wine.”
Vig did not pay attention to the envoy’s remarks and steered the conversation back to Eric’s castle, then to the Kingdom of Norway’s fiscal revenue and officials’ salaries.
Mentioning wages, the envoy poured out his bitterness:
“Since last August, Eric has started using various goods as wages, including woolen cloth, grain, and amber. The types often depend on the warehouse inventory.
For example, from January to April, the supplies issued were woolen cloth. When we received our wages, we immediately took the cloth to the marketplace to sell it. The increased supply of cloth led to a drop in prices, and we generally lost 10% to 20%.”
Lunch lasted for nearly an hour, finally ending with the envoy falling fast asleep.
Having a servant girl support the other party to the second-floor guest room to rest, Vig endured his sleepiness, holding a pen and paper to summarize the information just obtained.
According to the envoy, the Norwegian royal family’s annual income is equivalent to thirteen hundred pounds of silver, slightly lower than Wessex.
“According to the measurement data of posterity, Norway’s area is approximately 380,000 square kilometers, Britain’s area is approximately 230,000 square kilometers, and Ireland to the west is approximately 84,000 square kilometers. Eric, as the King of Norway, is actually not as wealthy as the Duke of Wessex. It seems that Northern Europe is indeed not suitable for survival.”
Rubbing his eye sockets, Vig put aside his worries. King Eric is old and cowardly, and his castle has exhausted years of fiscal surplus. The possibility of attacking Tyne is close to zero.
“Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the next step should be haggling.”
After sending off the envoy, Vig’s life returned to calm. He handled daily affairs, spent time with his family, and inspected various places within the city during his free time.
One day, he happened to pass by the parchment workshop in the southeast of the city and discovered that the artisans had figured out early papermaking techniques.
For many years, Tyne has used three types of paper: expensive parchment, papyrus imported from the Mediterranean Sea, and birch bark paper proposed by the shaman Kemi Wildfire.
Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Due to cost and quality issues, Vig could only use them in a mixture:
Official documents and letters used high-quality, expensive parchment;
Books used parchment and birch bark paper;
Informal occasions used papyrus.
In order to reduce expenses in this area, he told the artisans some of his memories about papermaking techniques. After several years, he finally unlocked this technology tree.
In the center of the courtyard, the artisans fished out some old linen and discarded fishing nets that had been soaked for a long time, cut them into pieces, and then mixed them with limewater and boiled them, stirring repeatedly in the process.
The fibers after boiling were rinsed with clean water, pounded repeatedly with a wooden mallet, and finally formed a flocculent pulp.
Next, the artisans poured the obtained pulp into the pool to dilute it, stirred it to form a turbid suspension, immersed a large wooden screen into the pulp, then lifted it horizontally to form a wet sheet of paper. Then they proceeded with dehydration and drying to obtain paper suitable for writing.
After confirming that the quality of the finished paper was qualified, Vig pondered for a moment and decided to immediately relocate the workshop.
Currently, the population of Tyne Town has exceeded three thousand people, and trade is frequent. Papermaking techniques are easily leaked to the outside world.
Therefore, he plans to move the paper mill to the Will River, more than ten kilometers to the south. There are swamps everywhere, the population is sparse, and it is convenient to keep secrets. Although papermaking techniques will eventually leak out one day, it’s better to earn a little more.
Leaving the workshop, Vig calculated the profit of the papermaking business.
The raw materials for papermaking come from bark, old linen, and discarded nets; the cost is low. The key is sales.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the situation in Europe was turbulent. The literacy rate in the early Middle Ages was about 1%-2%.
The vast majority of the literate population belonged to the priestly group. In addition, a very small number of merchants or artisans mastered basic reading and writing.
In contrast, the noble class placed more emphasis on military skills than on cultural education. Bookkeeping and letter writing were entrusted to stewards and priests, leading to the infiltration of administrative power by the church.
As for the vast number of peasants and artisans, they did not have the opportunity to receive education, and their need for reading and writing was extremely low. They lived their lives in a daze.
In summary, the paper produced by the papermaking workshop, in addition to supplying the administrative system, temples, and schools within Tyne, most of the remaining products can only be sold to monasteries throughout Europe.
In the church’s impression, Vig is undoubtedly a cunning and deceitful pagan nobleman. Realizing that these high-quality and low-priced papers come from Tyne, the church is most likely to boycott them openly while secretly exploring related papermaking techniques. It is impossible for them to let Vig earn too much profit.
Realizing this, his good mood immediately diminished greatly.
“It seems that the idea of making a lot of money from papermaking is not very realistic. Oh well, meeting the needs within the territory is also not bad. Since the establishment of the Four Northern Counties, the demand for paper has been increasing day by day. Now that papermaking has appeared, it can at least save the high cost of importing paper.”