Returning to the Hofmann estate, after settling the five kittens, Marin began arranging housing for the four fishing families.
These fishermen had been fishing along the coast for generations.
Unfortunately, these families had bad luck.
Their fishing boat (which the four families had purchased together) capsized at sea.
For fishermen, the boat is their most important asset.
Losing the boat was like the sky falling for these families.
Boats are expensive, especially for ordinary fishermen.
Without a boat, the family loses all hope.
Although they survived due to their excellent swimming skills, hunger at home was unavoidable.
On the brink of bankruptcy, Marin happened to be recruiting fishermen.
Having no other options, the four families decided to follow Marin.
Marin helped them build houses by the river and settled them in.
But a problem arose—they didn’t have a boat.
The families brought their fishing nets, but without a boat, the nets were useless.
Initially, the families hoped Marin would buy them a Hanseatic fast boat—a single-mast triangular sailboat that they were skilled in operating.
However, Marin considered that river and sea conditions were different.
At sea, the strong winds are sufficient to drive sailboats.
But on the river, calm or light wind conditions are frequent.
At such times, the sailboat would be at a disadvantage.
Even in large “inland seas” like the Mediterranean, calm conditions are common.
That’s why Venetians and Genoese often used oared sailboats.
When the wind was favorable, they relied on sails, and when it wasn’t, the sailors would row.
The Ruhr River, though not small, wasn’t large enough to justify using Italian-oared sailboats for fishing.
After much thought, Marin decided to employ the eastern riverboats—sculling boats.
Sculling boats are generally small, with a maximum displacement of only about a dozen tons.
However, they have a significant advantage—they save energy.
An ancient saying goes, “One scull equals three oars,” meaning one scull stroke is equivalent to three oar strokes.
Sculls are an Eastern invention, a scientific marvel.
Their design places the scull blade at the back of the boat, similar to modern-day ship propellers, whereas oars are placed on the sides, making rowing more laborious.
Marin summoned a few shipwrights from a nearby town, and together they spent several days building a small wooden boat with a displacement of about five to six tons, outfitting it with a scull.
Not only that, but Marin also had the craftsmen build a rainproof canopy on the boat, similar to the black awning boats of Zhejiang.
To be honest, although Marin knew what a sculling boat looked like, he had never actually operated one.
So, when he tried to demonstrate how to use it, the boat wobbled and occasionally spun in circles.
Fortunately, the Frisian fishermen he had recruited were more talented than he was.
After a few days, Marin still hadn’t mastered sculling, but the Frisian fishermen had, which left Marin feeling quite embarrassed.
Soon after, the Frisian fishermen began navigating the sculling boat on the Ruhr River, casting nets and catching fish.
It seemed that no one else was fishing in the inland rivers during this time, so the fishermen’s catches were plentiful.
Each time they fished, they brought back several hundred pounds of various river fish.
As the lord who provided shelter for the four families, the Hofmann family received half of the catch, with first pick.
However, to Marin’s dismay, old Hofmann and Adler (except for Lady Mary) seemed to be eating fish for the first time.
Both old Hofmann and Adler got fish bones stuck in their throats, causing them great pain.
Luckily, the three children weren’t affected.
After the two adults had the fish bones removed, Lady Mary decisively ordered that the children were only allowed to eat the boneless meat from the fish’s belly.
The rest of the fish, with its many bones, was reserved for Lady Mary, who had grown up by the sea.
As a Frisian, she was used to eating fish and never had trouble with bones.
From then on, when the Hofmann family ate fish, Lady Mary took charge of the meat with many bones on the fish’s back, while the belly meat and roe were divided among the others.
Marin also showed off some oriental culinary skills, which he claimed to have learned from the “Great Sage Einstein,” using a Chinese-style iron wok custom-made by the local blacksmith.
He cooked up many delicious dishes. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
For example, though there wasn’t any balsamic vinegar, Europe had apple cider vinegar, so Marin made a sweet and sour fish dish that was incredibly delicious.
Even before the sweet and sour fish was finished cooking, his younger siblings were drooling with anticipation.
However, Marin had one frustration—ginger was hard to find in Europe.
There were onions and garlic, but the dish didn’t taste as authentic without ginger.
To Marin’s shock, in this era, ginger was considered a precious spice imported from the East, with a high price.
Although it wasn’t as expensive as extremely rare spices like cloves or nutmeg, it was still quite costly.
According to old Hofmann, in northern Germany, one pound of ginger typically cost 8 shillings (96 pfennigs), and in some remote areas, it could even be traded for a sheep.
A sheep has dozens of pounds of meat, which at 2 pfennigs per pound of mutton (the wholesale price) would be worth several dozen pfennigs, nearly a hundred pfennigs in total—ginger was incredibly expensive!
In fact, considering the value of wool and sheepskin, a sheep was estimated to be worth around 160 pfennigs, about 1 mark.
(Note: Before the rise of the Ottoman Turks, trade between Europe and the East was relatively smooth, so spices weren’t particularly expensive. But after the Ottomans rose to power, they began to block land trade routes, causing spice prices in Europe to soar. For example, in the early Middle Ages, ginger was only 2 shillings per pound. However after the Turks disrupted trade routes, spice prices started to skyrocket. By the time the Turks destroyed the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, land trade routes were almost entirely cut off, and Europe had to rely on the Portuguese sea route. By the time of Queen Elizabeth I, the price of ginger had risen to the point where a pound of ginger could be traded for a sheep.)
Setting the ginger issue aside, after the Hofmann family tasted Marin’s oriental cuisine, they ate so much that their mouths were greasy, completely disregarding their manners.
Lady Mary seemed to realize the value of this oriental culinary skill and personally learned it from Marin, planning to open a restaurant in town.
But Marin strongly opposed this:
“Mom, I know opening a restaurant with this magical oriental cooking skill would definitely make money. But have you considered the consequences? If such delicious food appears, those powerful nobles won’t let this secret recipe go. They’ll find ways to take it by force. At that point, this might not be the Hofmann family’s fortune but a huge disaster. After all, the Hofmann family is only at the bottom tier of the Empire’s nobility…”
Marin’s words made the clever Lady Mary realize the truth.
Coming from a noble family, she knew all too well the shady dealings of the aristocracy.
Her son was right; their family was merely a low-ranking noble house, incapable of withstanding pressure from above.
If the Baron of Bochum, who was just above them, demanded they hand over the secret recipe, the Hofmann family wouldn’t be able to resist.
In the end, Lady Mary decided that this cooking skill would be hers alone, and she would only cook it for her family.
…
One day, after eating and drinking his fill, Marin decided to explore the land behind their estate…
Strangely enough, the Hofmann family’s 1,000-acre estate included 200 acres of land by the Ruhr River, but the remaining 800 acres of hilly terrain couldn’t support crops, trees couldn’t grow, and even weeds struggled to thrive.
So, Marin decided to go to the hills and investigate why the land was so barren…
Although Marin wasn’t a geologist, as a history student, he had a decent understanding of geography.
He might not be able to solve soil problems, but he knew some basic principles.
Leading a group of strong young men like Kahn, Marin headed to the hills, where they dug up soil samples for Marin to study.
After his investigation, Marin discovered that the land in the hills appeared to be somewhat saline, which explained why it was so barren and why plants struggled to grow.
This excited Marin; he suspected that there might be a salt mine underground.
This suspicion wasn’t unfounded.
In later generations, Bochum became a famous mining city with abundant underground mineral resources.
Who knows, maybe there’s a salt mine buried beneath Hoffman Manor.
It’s important to note that in the Middle Ages, salt was extremely expensive.
Just how expensive?
In medieval England, an island nation, the price of salt was relatively low at 4 shillings (about 48 pfennigs) per quart (12.7 kilograms), equivalent to about 1.7 pfennigs per pound.
On the European continent, except for Mediterranean coastal areas where salt prices were similar to England, salt was much more expensive elsewhere.
In the German region, the price of salt in the northern coastal areas was about 2.5 pfennigs per pound.
In inland areas like Bochum, which is only a few hundred miles from the coast, the price was about 3 pfennigs per pound.
Further south in the inland areas, the price could reach as high as 5 pfennigs per pound.
If a salt mine could be found beneath Hoffman Manor, it would essentially be as valuable as discovering a silver mine.
White salt could be exchanged for silver, and there would be no shortage of buyers.
The Duke of Lüneburg, for example, became a famous magnate in the German region thanks to the salt mines in Lüneburg.
Fueled by the enthusiasm to find a salt mine, Marin instructed Kahn and the others to start digging in the hills behind the manor using Chinese-style shovels.
After digging in several places, they finally unearthed something dark from several meters deep in a small valley in the hills…
“This is… coal…” Marin’s mouth dropped open in surprise.
Instead of finding a salt mine, they had discovered coal…
Upon reflection, Marin realized this was normal.
Where was Bochum located? This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
The Ruhr region.
And Hoffman Manor was by the Ruhr River.
In the Ruhr region, coal mines were everywhere, so finding coal in the hills behind Hoffman Manor was entirely expected.
However, coal in the Middle Ages wasn’t as valuable as salt and wasn’t in high demand…
Why?
It’s simple: everyone needed salt, but not everyone needed coal.
Coal could be used as fuel, but so could firewood.
In regions far from coal mines, it made more sense to gather firewood locally than to go to great lengths to transport coal from distant places.
Only in cities, where both firewood and coal had to be brought in from outside, was coal in demand.
And even then, transportation had to be convenient, and the coal mines had to be easily accessible.
This was the Middle Ages, not the age of steam engines that devoured coal.
Plus, with coal mines scattered all over the Ruhr region, coal wasn’t particularly valuable.
But still, the hills behind the Hoffman estate, previously just abandoned land, at least now had coal, which meant the land wouldn’t go to waste.
When the family learned about the coal mine, they were delighted.
While coal might not be very valuable at the moment, it could still be sold for money.
Plus, Hoffman Manor was right by the Ruhr River.
They could build a dock along the river and transport the coal by boat for sale.
The Ruhr River connects to the Rhine, reaching many cities, and making transportation convenient.
However, coal prices were indeed low.
A chaldron of coal (288 gallons, weighing about 1.5 to 1.7 tons) retailed for only 3 shillings (36 pfennigs) in the Ruhr region.
Even if they transported it to the large cities along the Rhine, it would only fetch around 5 shillings.
Meanwhile, a quart of salt (12.7 kilograms) could sell for at least 4 shillings.
So, coal simply couldn’t compare to salt in value.
Still, with convenient water transport, Hoffman Manor could mine and sell coal to various cities and make a profit.
Old Mr.
Hoffman hired professional mining engineers to evaluate the situation.
Their assessment showed that the entire hilly area behind the manor was rich in coal deposits, and it was all high-quality coal.
They estimated that millions of chaldrons of coal could be mined, all from depths of less than 100 meters.
As for anything deeper than 100 meters, it would be difficult to extract with the current medieval technology.
The biggest challenge was draining water from deep mines, a problem that wasn’t solved until the British invented the steam engine in the 18th century.
Watt’s steam engine, in fact, was an improvement on the coal mine water-pumping steam engine, rather than an original invention.
With the discovery of the coal mine, the Hoffman family urgently discussed how to extract and transport the coal for sale.
First, the Hoffman family would need to recruit a batch of serfs to work as miners.
Many serfs were being displaced from manors at the time due to overpopulation.
Serf families had many children, but the manors had limited need for serfs, so every year, some were driven off to find work in cities or mines.
Hoffman Manor itself had seven or eight young men who had gone to the city to work as laborers.
Marin knew that mining coal was dangerous.
The Hoffman family’s coal mine was clearly underground, though not very deep, it was still underground, not open-pit.
Underground mining was hazardous, with frequent explosions and collapses.
Therefore, Marin didn’t want to use the manor’s own serfs as miners.
Recruiting laborers from outside was the best option.
Then there was the issue of transportation.
Once the mine was opened, they would need to lay tracks to transport coal carts to the Ruhr River, about two kilometers away.
Once there, the Hoffman family would have to build a dock for coal barges.
The Hoffman family didn’t own any trading ships, so they would have to rely on middlemen to transport the coal.
In this case, the Hoffman family would only earn 2 shillings per chaldron of coal.
But even so, this would still significantly increase the family’s income.
After all, purely farming didn’t bring in much money.