Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 128 The Income of the Nobles
With limited cargo capacity, the soldiers prioritized amber, furs, woolen fabrics, and pig iron ingots, abandoning low-value items such as grain and salted fish.

After staying in Bergen for two days without finding any trace of Oher and his cronies nearby, Vig decided to flee as soon as possible, taking advantage of favorable wind conditions.

Before leaving, he ordered his soldiers to gather the two thousand residents of Bergen and deliver a speech to them:

"Gentlemen, I am Vig, Duke of Tynburg. This is all due to a personal feud between me and the Lord of Bergen. He has been in arrears on his debts for a long time and even killed my messenger last month. He has no respect for me at all. I hereby issue a bounty for his head, offering fifty pounds of silver!"

Noticing the somewhat somber mood among the crowd, Vig deliberately announced some good news.

"I am deeply sorry for disturbing your lives. You may take the remaining grain, pickled fish, and wine from the storeroom for free. You may also move the furniture from the lord's longhouse as you wish. Consider this my small compensation."

After saying this, amidst the cheers of two thousand residents, Vig led his troops onto the ship and departed.

In mid-May, the fleet arrived at Forth Firth, a sea area near Edinburgh. Instead of rushing south back to Tyneburg, Wieg took the time to visit Stirlingshire to inspect the local iron smelting situation.

According to previous letters, he learned that the mine manager was trying to lay wooden tracks to alleviate the growing transportation problems.

After sailing upstream on the River Forth for a distance, the Mackerel lowered its sails and slowly approached the pier on the north bank. The sailors turned the winch to lower the anchor and then secured the wooden stakes on the shore with ropes.

Stepping onto the wooden planks, Vig approached Kesso, who was surrounded by miners. "How's the railcar working?"

"The effect is very good,"

Kaiser led the Duke to the northern part of the ironworks, where a 100-meter-long wooden track was temporarily laid, with the track spacing being about 1.5 meters.

Under the supervisor's orders, the workers brought in draft horses and drove them to pull a mine cart loaded with reddish-brown ore. After two round trips, the draft horses were still full of energy.

According to later measurement standards, the speed of a draft horse was about six kilometers per hour, and the weight of a mining cart was roughly 1.5 tons—equivalent to twice that of a traditional horse-drawn carriage.

If the horses are used to transport miners to the mining area, their speed will be further increased. What used to take two hours can now be completed in just half an hour.

Vig offered several suggestions for the current track: lay sleepers under the wooden track, and fill the gaps between the sleepers with gravel to allow rainwater to flow out through the gravel gaps, preventing the track from being soaked in water for a long time and thus shortening its service life.

In a few years, when iron processing technology improves, it will be possible to nail a layer of iron sheet onto the surface of the wooden rails to increase the load capacity of the mine cars and extend the service life of the wooden rails.

Vig then shifted his focus to the blast furnace, deciding to add a smelting process to his visit – stirring the molten iron.

Unfolding the blueprints, he explained to Kesso and the other workers, "This is a hydraulic mixer, used to mix the molten iron produced from the blast furnace."

This process appeared in the Han Dynasty, and Vig vaguely remembered its effect: iron ore contains many impurities. During the stirring process, the impurities in the molten iron react with oxygen in the air to produce oxides with low density, which float on the surface of the molten iron and are easy to skim off with a long-handled spoon.

The iron produced in this way has a lower carbon content, making it easier to process into ironware. Viggo envisions that if the quality of the iron is significantly better than previous products, the price might be able to be increased slightly.

“Well, according to Keso, using railcars will increase daily transport volume by at least 50%.” Vig wrote a calculation on the papyrus: with the addition of railcars and hydraulic mixers, annual pig iron production will further increase, and converted into silver coins, the annual profit can reach four hundred pounds of silver!

“Very good. The iron ore mines on the north bank of the Forth River alone are enough to cover the cost of the entire garrison in the North, so that Tyneburg will not have to pay out of pocket.”

With the increased supply of pig iron, farmers can purchase more iron tools, including heavy iron plows, horseshoes, and iron implements, leading to increased crop yields and a gradual increase in agricultural taxes.

Thinking of this, Viger was in a good mood and gave the ironworks employees an extra bonus.

Back in Tyneburg, Vig told Helgeve the good news about the ironworks. The two did some calculations and confirmed that there would be no more budget deficit this year, and their worries vanished.

Clutching his quill, Vig suddenly had a whim and began to calculate the income of other nobles.

First was Ragnar, the High King of Britain. Vig was in charge of managing the income of the Mercian royal family, and later prepared supplies for the campaign against the Franks in Londenium. Throughout this process, he came into contact with a large amount of financial information. Overall, Ragnar's annual income was roughly equivalent to 6000 to 8000 pounds of silver.

Then came King Eric of Norway, whose land area exceeded that of Britain. However, its harsh climate and low crop yields led to a large-scale migration of people to Britain.

Based on fragments of conversation among merchants, Vigé estimated that the Norwegian royal family's annual income was roughly equivalent to 1000 to 2000 pounds of silver.

Within Britain, Wessex was financially sound. After the fall of Winchester, Wigg reviewed the accounts and found that, excluding customs duties in Oxfordshire and Southampton, the Duke of Wessex's annual income was approximately £1500.

As for Theowough, Duke of Mercia, his territory is about half the size of the original Mercia. A small silver mine was recently discovered, and his annual income is roughly a thousand pounds of silver.

Following them are three newly enthroned dukes: Vig, Ivar, and Gunnar.

First, regarding his own territory, the iron mines in Stirlingshire were operating well, and the four newly established counties had begun collecting agricultural taxes. Overall, the income in 850 AD was estimated to be in the range of 1000 to 1400 pounds.

As for Ivar, he currently controls Derwent and two-fifths of Ireland. Unfortunately, he is mired in war, with all the taxes collected each year going into the war effort. He has to borrow money every now and then, and even his wife's jewelry has been pawned to wool merchants.

In order to sort out the tax revenue, Ivar sought help from Vig in March and borrowed a team of officials to handle the backlog of accounts from previous years.

As of now, Ivar's annual income is worth 500 pounds of silver, with huge growth potential. If the war ends and he spends a few years patiently managing the land, it could at least double in value.

Next is Gunnar, Duke of Normandy, whose case is the most unique.

Gunnar remained nominally the lord of Cambridge, but in reality, he broke free from Ragnar's control and instead allied himself with the new boss, Charles the Bald. Rumor has it that he and his Viking followers gradually adopted Frankish customs and abandoned their faith in the Norse gods.

Vigé was unaware of Normandy's tax revenue and could only make a rough estimate:

West Frankish climate and soil conditions are far better than those of Britain, making it the most livable land in Europe. The local produce is abundant, and considering the horse trade, he estimated Gunnar's annual income to be between 2000 and 3000 pounds.

(End of this chapter)