You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 49 I want it all
Roman sold 600 jin of maltose for only 20 gold coins.

Morey brought 18 oxen and 28 draft horses.

The price of a draft horse is 7.5 silver coins.

The 28 draft horses were worth 21 gold coins.

In other words, the maltose that Roman brought couldn't even buy 28 draft horses.

The price of an ox was 5.5 silver coins, for a total value of 9.9 gold coins.

Draft horses are rarely used in warfare; at most, they are used for transporting supplies or pulling wagons.

As Morey once said, draft horses have less endurance, less physical strength, and are less efficient at plowing compared to oxen.

If a yoke is worn on a draft horse for an extended period of time, it will cause the horse to have difficulty breathing and may even die suddenly.

For various reasons, draft horses are not expensive, and their prices are far lower than those of warhorses.

This batch of livestock totaled 30 gold coins. Even if Roman tried to buy these oxen and draft horses with maltose through barter, he would not be able to do so.

The boasts they made earlier immediately fell apart.

But Roman didn't feel embarrassed.

He gestured to Morey and said, "When your merchant ship comes to Sig next time, I can give you 200 barrels of malt sugar."

The production cost of this thing is incredibly low, and it's quick and easy to make, so there's no reason for Roman not to continue production.

Anyway, there's plenty of wheat.

Morey stammered incoherently, "Take away the young master?! 200 barrels? Six thousand catties?!"

He immediately realized that Roman Rift had mastered the art of making sugar and named this honey maltose.

Is this sugar extracted from malt?

How many kilograms of wheat are needed to make one kilogram of maltose?

If the cost is too high, how can it be mass-produced?

Morey's tightly furrowed brows relaxed instantly. He was first genuinely shocked, then fell into a mental turmoil. Amidst the clash of countless thoughts, Morey instinctively blurted out, "If all 200 barrels of maltose were to enter the market, its value would be greatly reduced."

Roman didn't care how low the price could go; he was just making money off the ground.

But maltose was a new commodity, and he was worried that this would expose the town of Sig and attract many covetous eyes.

This is not a good thing for the town of Sig.

"Then forget it." Roman easily gave up on this approach.

Then Roman asked, "You should know what I'm doing right now, right?"

Morey had spoken with the residents of Sig Town before Roman arrived; this was a habit of businessmen, allowing them to quickly find out what was happening in the area.

The information he received from there was somewhat hard for him to believe, which is why he was a little excited when he met Roman.

"You're repairing the road..."

Roman nodded: "Yes, I've found a salt mine and am ready to start mining."

Morey knew that this land contained a great deal of wealth, so he was very confident and willing to invest regardless of returns.

He just hadn't expected that Sig Town would develop so quickly. Roman found a salt mine in just one month and had almost finished paving 40 kilometers of roads.

This efficiency is truly astonishing.

Even Makor Tide, whom Morey had once met, could not compare. Although the latter was also one of the three grand dukes of the Black Iron Kingdom and his actions were exemplary, he still could not be compared to the extraordinary being before him.

Not everyone can find a way to get rich in such a short time with nothing but their bare hands.

He said urgently, "Can I go and take a look?"

Roman could understand Morey's eagerness.

He found someone to show Morey around. Although there had been a heavy rain a few days ago, the flat ground was still muddy and the tire tracks were messy, but it was generally fine.

Morey sped along, passing oxcarts and horse-drawn carriages, and soon saw hundreds of farmers busily working on leveling the road.

The wide road is not yet finished; there are still ten miles left to go. However, a small path has already been built ahead of time. Although it cannot be used by large vehicles, it allows people to walk directly to the salt mine.

Roman sent dozens of farmers there in advance to make preparations.

To build a salt processing plant, they need to clear away the surface piles of rubble and dig several meters or even tens of meters deep to reach a corner of this rock salt deposit.

Compared to sea salt, rock salt is purer. It has extremely high purity and fewer impurities. Some rock salt can even be used as coarse salt. When grilling meat or cooking, you can just rub the salt block a couple of times.

However, excessive consumption may lead to salt poisoning.

Therefore, it needs to undergo processing such as crushing, dissolving, filtering, and boiling. The fine salt processed in this way can be called refined salt. There is no need to worry about safety issues—rest assured, people in this era will definitely die from other accidents before they are poisoned.

Upon seeing the high-purity rock salt and the enormous, ice-like crystals, Morey became exceptionally excited.

He realized that this was a high-quality salt mine, easy to mine, and its future output would certainly be extremely high.

Salt is a strategic resource, and no one can ignore its value.

To be precise, salt is only slightly inferior to iron.

This special mineral can even affect certain witches' spells.

Therefore, the church also attaches great importance to salt, regarding it as a sacred substance that can drive away and purify demons.

As a result, slightly wealthier families would also buy this salt to ward off evil spirits and protect against misfortune.

Kings and nobles also regarded salt as a special form of currency, using salt, iron, wheat, furs, and meat to offset most of the military pay.

So when Morey returned from the salt mine, he was beaming and kept saying "good, good, good."

Roman asked, "Do you want salt or sugar?"

Morey took a deep breath and said exactly what Roman had said.

"I want it all!"

Roman was satisfied with Morey's answer. "Alright, the price of the livestock will be offset by salt. When you come to Sig Town next time, I will still give you maltose, the exact amount depending on how much you want to buy. As for the salt, I will sell it to you for now at 0.1 copper coins per jin, without charging you any customs duties. After you transport 200,000 jin of salt, I will raise the price to 0.2 copper coins per jin, and charge an additional 1 copper coin customs duty for every 100 jin. Do you understand?"

Morey certainly understands Roman's actions.

The purchase price is the purchase price, and the export tariff is the export tariff.

Even if one purchased large quantities of salt from salt-producing regions, the local nobles would still demand the payment of corresponding customs duties upon leaving those areas. Import duties would also be levied upon entering other regions.

The customs duty of one copper coin per hundred catties of salt was quite low.

After all, salt is a necessity, and tariffs have a significant impact on salt prices.

When salt prices are stable, merchants typically purchase it for 0.2 copper coins per pound. However, if there is social unrest, the price could very likely rise to 0.25 copper coins or even higher.

For every hundred catties of salt purchased, an additional import and export tariff of 4 to 6 copper coins had to be paid, which indirectly increased the purchase cost.

Therefore, many merchants hope to find salt-producing regions with stable prices and low tariffs.

……

……

PS: Wheat is a high-grade grain; one pound of wheat is equivalent to three or four pounds of other grains.

The export price of 1 unit of salt is equal to 4 units of wheat, while the market price is 1 unit of salt equal to 20 units of wheat.
罗曼给莫雷的价格是1斤盐2斤小麦——直到莫雷运走20万斤盐，然后再将盐价提到1盐等于4小麦的标准价格。

Because the oxen and draft horses that Moreira brought were given to Roman for free, he received a low purchase price in return.

Don't think that 20 jin of salt is a lot.

The Black Iron Kingdom has a population of tens of millions. How much salt would a society of tens of millions of people need?
If you think the annual social demand for salt is less than 500 million catties, then there's nothing more to say.

(End of this chapter)